Port Stephens police, Marine Area Command officers and a team of police divers from Sydney set up camp along the river on Tuesday, September 15, searching for cars that were dumped off the Tomago boat ramp.

Divers located 14 cars with four directly in front of the ramp, five about 50 metres east of the ramp and another five the same distance west.

The four directly in front of the ramp were recovered between 9.30am and 3.30pm on Tuesday.

Port police officers, divers and heavy vehicle towing company O’Neill’s were set to return on Wednesday to continue the recovery operation.

Port Stephens police Inspector Tony Townsend said Operation Ahoy was formed after intelligence was received that cars had been dumped in the river.

‘‘A Raymond Terrace boating company that was testing their sonar equipment on the river located several cars and reported it to police,’’ he said.

‘‘Water police did a sonar scan this morning and identified 14 cars.’’

Two of the four cars pulled out were identified as having been stolen from the Maitland area in 2009 and 2010.

One included an red Toyota Hilux with the key still in the ignition.

Inspector Townsend said it did not look like any of the other cars had been dumped in the the river any more recently than 2010.

Two Fire and Rescue NSW crews, both from Tarro, were called in about 3pm to high pressure hose three of the four recovered cars in a bid to find VIN numbers and identify the vehicles.

A team of four divers took to the water on Tuesday morning to assess which cars were able to be winched out, to try and identify any registration plates and to tie the winch around the cars that could be recovered.

Some cars are too rusted to be removed from the water.

Inspector Townsend said police intended to look at all boat ramps along the river, including the Fitzgerald Bridge and at Seaham, following the discovery in Tomago.