Gangs set to face off over drug dealings

Simmering gang tensions will soon erupt into warfare, gang sources say.

It has to do with one gang’s nationwide expansion into the methamphetamine market. And multiple busts and millions of dollars’ worth of property and meth seized have not halted the gang’s trade.

The Head Hunters are one of the top distributors of methamphetamine in New Zealand.

And it’s not just the police who’ve noticed. Other gangs have, too. And it’s going to come to a head.

‘‘All I’m gonna say,’’ a Mongrel Mob source said, ‘‘is that everyone has their eye on what they’re gonna do now. We see them setting up in the hood – we just gonna let it lie for now. But they gonna push it soon and something will go down and it ain’t gonna be pretty,’’ he said.

Organised Crime Detective Superintendent Virginia Le Bas said the Head Hunters’ success so far was that unlike other gangs, members operated on a business model.

‘‘Mongrel Mob and Black Power are individual groups,’’ she said. ‘‘They don’t have an allegiance to a national group, they work individually in their own centres.

‘‘The Head Hunters have one strategy: They all report back to Auckland. They are organised.

‘‘They could have expanded years ago, but they didn’t,’’ said a Black Power source who asked to remain anonymous. ‘‘Now they are and they’re going all out . . . They are going to have a presence across the country soon. They are moving fast.’’

The Head Hunters have been known to ‘‘patch over’’ small operators, bringing them into the business model. In November 2015, the Head Hunters patched over the Epitaph Riders in Christchurch. The headquarters there now flies a Head Hunters flag.

The Black Power source said the gang’s reach was strong both in prisons and out on the streets. The police say the gang’s reach extends outside New Zealand.

‘‘It is obvious that the Head Hunters have connections with Asians involved in organised crime,’’ Le Bas said. ‘‘We believe this is how the gang is getting the precursors to methamphetamine from Asia.’’

The Head Hunters are running a disciplined operation, says the Black Power source, which is backed up by a Head Hunter who wished not to be named.

‘‘We don’t do P, we aren’t allowed to do P and we don’t want to, either,’’ he said.

The Black Power member said the Head Hunters were not allowed to smoke meth and were encouraged to do physical activity.

‘‘They are not allowed to smoke the stuff. Bad for bizzo if you have crackheads selling crack.’’

Le Bas said police knew about the gang’s methamphetamine plans, which was behind the expansion.

‘‘They are disproportionately represented in the manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine around New Zealand.

‘‘The Head Hunters come up regularly in many of our operations where we are investigating methamphetamine distribution throughout New Zealand.’’

Le Bas said police were also investigating the Head Hunters’ property portfolio.

‘‘We know, and most people around the communities [where the gang has recently expanded] will know, the Head Hunters have got properties and their fight clubs. They don’t make any secret of what they’ve got,’’ Le Bas said. ‘‘That’s something we’re interested in – how they’ve established the funds to purchase the properties. And if it’s related to crime, then there’s work that we can do in recovering those assets.’’

Many of the drug-contaminated houses people read about were Head Hunter properties, she said.