Three major criminal gangs in New Zealand

Three major criminal gangs in New Zealand - Hell's Angels, Mongrel Mob and Black Power - while the Tribesmen are attempting to set up shop.gangs should be outlawed.
Laws says the way to attack gangs is not to give them longer sentences after they have been convicted, but to hound, harass and deny them access to benefits and state houses. The council will make a submission to parliament along those lines.
Tukituki MP Craig Foss made a special speech in parliament about the murder of central Hawke's Bay farmer Mark McCutcheon after the Gangs and Organised Crimes Bill passed its first reading under urgency this week.A 22-year-old gang associate has been charged with McCutcheon's murder.Foss said society needs to fight back and say enough is enough.gangs to take over too many of the country's streets, Police Minister Judith Collins says.The criticism comes after a woman and her two young children were allegedly threatened and forced from their Lower Hutt home by neighbouring Mongrel Mob members.

Pomare's Farmer Cres is well known as a Mongrel Mob enclave, with at least nine families linked to the gang living there. Police told The Dominion Post that their officers avoided the area.

More than 50 police swooped on seven properties and arrested 10 gang members and associates early on Tuesday morning.Ms Collins praised the decisive police action but said whole streets had been taken over by gangs in the past few years. The Government would act to disperse the groups."In a select committee I was on, Housing New Zealand actually confessed that they took gang affiliations into consideration when they housed them ... That's not acceptable. High and middle-income earners never have to deal with it. Poor New Zealanders who can't choose where they live ... are the most terrorised by these gangs."Housing NZ regional manager Pia Searancke said officials tried not to house rival gang members near each other, or to place too many people from one gang in the same area. But the corporation did not always know if people were gang members.The Pomare accused who face a variety of charges, including burglary, intimidation and cannabis possession could be evicted from their homes for breaching tenancy rules if they had committed crimes in the homes or intimidated neighbours, she said. A tough approach to tenancy breaches and "zero tolerance" to anti-social behaviour would be implemented.

Mongrel Mob member entered Black Power-dominated Munro St, in Elgin.

Mongrel Mob member entered Black Power-dominated Munro St, in Elgin.More gang members arrived and many were armed with home-made weapons, including garden implements, Senior Sergeant Rodger Gray.At least 30 police responded to emergency calls from worried members of the public.Twelve people were arrested and charged with disorderly behaviour and possession of offensive weapons.A police search of properties in the street resulted in the discovery of two cannabis growing operations and the further arrest of two people on drugs charges.
Most of those charged appeared in Gisborne District Court on Thursday, with a small number yet to appear on Friday."The disappointing thing for me is that it occurred at 10.30am on the first or second day of the school holidays," Gray says."There was a large number of people, including children, who were caught up in this."The message is that any incidents such as this won't be tolerated."

Mongrel Mob youth accused of murdering Scots backpacker Karen Aim

Youth accused of murdering Scots backpacker Karen Aim blamed a man trying to impress a gang called the Mongrel Mob, it was claimed yesterday.A school security guard said the 14-year-old accused brandished the bloodstained murder weapon in front of him.
Leigh Herewini, a friend of the accused, told a court in New Zealand the schoolboy had fetched the wooden baseball bat from behind a trapdoor at the back of his grandparents' house.He told the committal hearing at Taupo Youth Court: "It had a lot of dents and bits missing off it. It looked like it had blood on it."I felt uncomfortable. It could have been the bat that hurt that girl. He said he had washed it, tried to wash the blood off it."But Mr Herewini said the accused, now aged 15, identified another man as the killer.Calling him Brian, the accused said the man had been trying to prove himself to a notorious criminal gang, the Mongrel Mob.The accusation had first come in a phone call from the youngster hours after 27-year-old Karen, from Holm in Orkney, had been found dying in the street in Taupo, a lakeside resort.Mr Herewini,34, had been called to the scene in the early hours of January 17 when an alarm was triggered by someone smashing windows.He saw a policeman kneeling beside Karen, who suffered horrific head injuries, in a pool of blood and was sent to fetch tape to fence off the area.Later that day, the accused teenager called. Mr Herewini added: "He said he knew the person that supposedly done it. He said it was a guy, Brian, a Mongrel Mob prospect from Rotorua."He said he was prospecting for his father, who was in the Mongrel Mob."

Patched Mongrel Mob members from Christchurch and one from Dunedin were arrested yesterday

Two patched Mongrel Mob members from Christchurch and one from Dunedin were arrested yesterday, confirming reports that reinforcements from further north had arrived in the city, but police said tensions between the Mob's Invercargill chapter and the Road Knights had eased off after reaching boiling point last week.An Invercargill Mob member was also arrested yesterday and appeared in the Invercargill District Court on charges of possessing an offensive weapon and resisting police, while one of the Christchurch members also appeared on a resisting charge.Police maintained a security vigil around the court as six people believed to be connected to the Road Knights appeared on charges unrelated to the tensions.The side entrance to the court was locked, as it had been each time gang members appeared this week, with every person entering the court searched and scanned by a metal detector.Apart from a single drive-by in Don St by four patched Mob members in a Ford Falcon, and a couple of members outside the court, who told The Southland Times they were "waiting for a bro", there was little sign of the tension in the city during the past week.Detective Senior Sergeant Brian Cowie, of Invercargill CIB, said while the feud had appeared to ease, police were aware it could just be a calm before the storm.
"It's quietening down, but we have to be realistic based on history (between both gangs) and we need to keep a high profile." At least 10 officers from Dunedin had been drafted to help during the weekend, and police would maintain a high profile, he said.However, police did not know what had led to the stoush between the gangs, he said. "There has been no leadup ... there's nothing that we can see, but they don't just go and burn down a pad without there being something." Despite suggestions of gang members en route to Invercargill, including a report of 30 boarding an inter-island ferry in Wellington on Tuesday, police had yet to see any gang members in the south from north of Christchurch, Mr Cowie said.Southland area commander Inspector Tony O'Neill said police had brought in extra staff to boost resources after the fires and would maintain that presence in a bid to "take the heat out of the situation".A feud between the gang factions was sparked last week after the Road Knights' Balmoral Dr headquarters was razed. Two motorbikes belonging to the gang were allegedly stolen by senior Mongrel Mob members and later torched.
Several days later a property in front of the Mongrel Mob headquarters in Severn St was burned down last Saturday night in what police dubbed a possible "revenge attack". However, the property owner said this week the only link with the Invercargill gang was the location of the house.