Shot gang boss leaves hospital to mark milestone
The Tribesmen motorcycle gang’s president, who was shot this week, was discharged from hospital to be among the hundreds of other members gathering at an Auckland vineyard for the gang’s 40th anniversary party yesterday.
Dion “Buzz” Snell was shot outside the main shopping area in O¯ tara on Monday evening, as fans celebrated Samoa’s 20-18 victory over Tonga in the Rugby League World Cup.
Snell was taken to Middlemore Hospital with what police described as critical injuries. The Herald understands he was shot in the stomach.
There were initial fears the shooting could break the truce between the rival Tribesmen and Killer Beez but it’s understood the Killer Beez are no longer suspected of being involved.
Snell has not co-operated with the police and joined more than 100 patched members and prospects who rode motorcycles across Auckland to the Allely Estate vineyard in Kumeu¯.
Dozens of police officers, including detectives and members of the dog section, were out in force around the rural west Auckland township.
Dozens of gang members arrived at the vineyard just after midday and were stopped at a checkpoint where police conducted drink-driving tests and inspected the motorcycles.
Court bailiffs were there too, and one patched member was taken into custody shortly after arriving.
Inspector Matt Laurenson said police were closely monitoring the event. “Our focus is to disrupt any unlawful activity or wider harm on the road, with the event expected to run late into the evening.”
Police would have “zero tolerance for anti-social, dangerous, or intimidating behaviour” on the roads and encouraged members of the public to report any incidents.
The Tribesmen formed in Murupara in 1980 then started other chapters in O¯tara and Northland, before heading south more recently to establish a presence in Christchurch.
Several patched members have been convicted of serious drug and violence offences, including murder, and the Tribesmen have been at the centre of a high-profile gang war with the Killer Beez this year.
The gangs once had close ties, with the Killer Beez, more of a youth street gang in the mid-2000s, acting as a feeder group to the Tribesmen, a more traditional motorcycle club.
Killer Beez president Josh Masters, who was also a patched Tribesmen member, was arrested in 2008 on methamphetamine and moneylaundering charges, for which he was later convicted and sentenced to 10 years and five months in prison.
In Masters’ absence from O¯tara, many of the Killer Beez graduated to the colours of the Tribesmen.
His homecoming was met with resistance from his former friends, and tensions flared with several shootings as Masters reasserted the Killer Beez as a fully fledged motorcycle club with distinctive white patches.
In April 2019 a senior Tribesmen member, Okusitino Tae, shot Masters inside the Harley Davidson dealership in Mt Wellington.
Tae was one of Masters’ closest friends growing up and a former Killer Beez soldier. He handed himself in and was jailed for seven years. Masters is paralysed from the waist down as a result of his injuries but is clearly in charge of the Killer Beez.
After several years of relative peace, it’s understood tensions flared again in March this year when the Tribesmen held a patching ceremony for new members in Papatoetoe.
That evening, Killer Beez fired at the address where the Tribesmen were gathered. No one was hurt.
So when some Killer Beez fell off their bikes on the Southern Motorway in April, a video clip of the embarrassing crash was shared widely on social media by mocking Tribesmen.
The online humiliation inflamed the rivalry to the point where a senior member of the Killer Beez turned up at a rugby league practice with a firearm to threaten a senior Tribesmen.
A series of drive-by shootings followed, spiralling over the next three weeks until the truce was called.
In a show of unity last month, members of both gathered together to pay their respects to one of the founding fathers of the Tribesmen, “Oldman” Roy Katene, when he died.