Tonight ` policing the gangs. I thought I'd seen gang violence, but what I saw just took it to a whole new level. GUNSHOT A special type of policing for a special type of criminal. They would be the most evil people I have ever dealt with. SMACKING, GRUNTING Bringing law to the lawless. They are significantly donkey-deep in the distribution of methamphetamine. The bikies, the brawlers, and the big business of crime. WHOOSH! THUMP! Captions by John Ling. Edited by Desney Shaw. www.tvnz.co.nz/access-services Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013 Gangs are big and noisy. ALL: Sieg Heil! With middle finger firmly raised at society, they specialise in crime, violence and intimidation, existing only to make money and raise hell. They see themselves as one-percenters ` those people that are against the rest of society. They actually don't care who they're selling to, what age they are, what gender they are, what part of society they're from. They're interested in making the mighty buck at the end of the day. Their organisations are there for the sole purpose of crime. PULSATING ROCK MUSIC In the '90s, Timaru was a town gripped by terror; the police struggling to control runaway gang violence. TYPEWRITER CLICK-CLACKS Shootings, violence and firebombings were becoming an almost daily occurrence. The Road Knights and the Devil's Henchmen were gangs that had the whole community living in fear. In the three months at the end of '91, there were numerous gang attacks. There were two homicides that had links back to the gangs. There were beatings, home invasions. It's incredible the crime you can get in three months in a small place like Timaru, and it was clear that things were out of control. When Bill Gregory was transferred to Timaru, he found a town in terror and a police force struggling to control the lawlessness. Why have the cops not acted on it? Get them out of town. No one wants them here. We have policed them to the best of our ability. The police had, for years, put little Band-Aid solutions in place. Three-week operation. Put a bit of pressure on the gangs. Things would quiet down, but as soon as they turned their back, the tension would ratchet up again, and the violence would start. PULSATING ROCK MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES A stolen vehicle pulled up opposite the opposition's hotel, and the back window was wound down like you see on the movies. GUN FIRES, TYRES SQUEAL I'd worked in Lower Hutt and, uh, the Wairarapa and Wellington, and I thought I'd seen, um, gang violence at a pretty high level, but what I saw in Timaru just took it to a whole new level. MAN: Timaru people have put up with their feuding bikies for years now, but last month's shooting of a gang member and subsequent arson attacks finally stirred them into action. I got the job of putting together a, uh, plan as to what we were gonna do about the situation, and basically, what it was was a ho-holistic plan to actually cripple the gangs, and also, it wouldn't be a two-week, three-week Band-Aid job. Um, this operation was intended to go for months and months and months, uh, and at the end of it, it would then shape the way in which we policed Timaru from then on. I started by having a meeting with both gangs. I went to their headquarters, and basically, I explained to them what we intended to do. So we started policing them and policing them hard. Police started by searching gang pads with a fine-tooth comb, making sure buildings were up to code, Health Department regulations were met and all property ownership could be proved. Yours? Yours? Not mine. We targeted their sale of liquor because of the way which they were using the debts they'd acquired through sale of liquor, uh, and the mana they would gain in the town by having a pretty attractive social spot at their headquarters. We took out everything in the place that was connected with the sale or supply of alcohol. You're paying. We took their furniture, their bar, their chillers, their electric lights. Um, we` we` you name it, we took it, and so they would end up with a pretty bare room and a hole in the corner where the bar used to be, and we applied to the court to destroy that equipment. And so it was a holistic policing like that. Getting help from the wider community was also a key part of Bill's big plan. We set up a hotline, and whereas before, we weren't getting much information from the public, it started as a trickle, and as we were able to get results and we advertised those results in the paper, et cetera, that got bigger and bigger and bigger until it turned into a torrent of information, and that information from the public is the lifeblood of the police. Without it, we can't operate properly. As the police influence in the town rose, the gang influence went down. People felt a lot better, and certainly, their influence on what happened in the town was` was cut to pieces. The gangs have never ever gone back to where they were, which is pretty good. Um, yeah, 20 years later, they've never gone back to what they were. WHOOSH! THUMP! FLAMES CRACKLE Bill Gregory's plan for policing the bikie gangs worked in Timaru, but could it deal to a rogue gang in the lower North Island? The Nomads, as a gang, were an offshoot of the Black Power, and on the Nomads patch, they had the number 77, which indicates 1977 was the first split from Black Power. And the story goes that Dennis Hines and some other senior Black Power members had a disagreement with Rei Harris, the president, and were essentially based in Masterton in the Wairarapa. and another, uh, offshoot in the Horowhenua centred around Dennis Hines within Levin and Foxton. UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC When the Nomads hit Woodville's Mountain Rock Festival, it wasn't peace and love they were packing but violence and intimidation. ALL RAP MAN: Fans will be rocking around the clock tonight. The bands will be playing until the festival ends about 4 o'clock tomorrow morning. Early on the Sunday morning, uh, a group of Nomads came across a rival motorcycle-gang member. WHACK! WHACK! THUMP! WHACK! WHACK! THUMP! GASPS: Oh! WHACK! WHACK! THUMP! GASPS: Oh! Get him. Yeah, come on! Come here! Argh! Argh! They assaulted him, and essentially, he got strung up over a small wire fence. You think you're tough? You think you're tough? No, no. You think you're tough? Huh? You think you're tough? Huh? No, no, no. GASPS: Hey, hey! Hey! Hey, man! GASPS: Hey, hey! Hey! Hey, man! You still think you're tough? GASPS: Hey, hey! Hey! Hey, man! You still think you're tough? No, man! See how tough you are when we cut your lips off. Chicken shit. See how tough you are when we cut your lips off. Chicken shit. Please. Dennis Hines came along and, using a butcher's knife, slashed the throat and the face of this other man. No one would come forward to challenge the Nomad's hardman. Not even the victim brave enough to speak up alone. Police needed a new strategy to defeat the gang. . Nothing says 'summer entertaining with friends' like jugs of Pimm's and glasses of G and T. Start things off with the ultimate summer Pimm's ` lovely and light, perfect for summer days like this. We're talking delicious, fruity Pimm's with refreshing lemonade and ginger ale, finished with tons of fresh seasonal fruit. Everybody knows how to make a G and T, but this is the ultimate summer G and T. Got the best gin that money can buy ` this guy, Tanqueray. And the best-quality gin deserves the best-quality tonic ` Quina Fina ` NZ-made. This stuff's amazing. The Tanqueray just gives the crispest, driest, truest gin flavour you can get. Oh, so good. Go one up for your summer gatherings. Grab the recipe for the ultimate summer G and T and the ultimate summer Pimm's, plus a bottle of Pimm's and a bottle of Tanqueray from the Mix stand in-store. Check it out. INTRIGUING MUSIC The Nomads gang had been running amok for years. WHACK! WHACK! Assaults and scare tactics had become the norm. MAN: Police say the gang has virtually held the Horowhenua to ransom over the last two years. Nomad prospects linked to the killing of Foxton doctor Howard Teppett, and police claim gang members were also responsible for shots fired at this house in Foxton recently. Townsfolk were living in fear. I don't want to comment, please. I'd rather not say, thanks. But if police could convince scared individuals to stand united against the gang, they knew they'd have a chance of winning the battle. Another constable and myself identified all the cars the Nomads were driving. Many weren't registered to Nomad members, so we visited the registered owners and said, 'You know, why are the Nomads driving your car?' And we began to hear stories of, 'Well, they came round, they beat me up, and they took it.' The Nomads referred to it, semi-politely, was they were taxing people. But, essentially, they were committing aggravated robberies. We managed to gather together a number of the victims who still hadn't reported to the police formally what had happened, and w-we gathered all of them together, and we said, 'Look, th-the power of all of you 'is much stronger than any of you individually.' Uh, Foxton ` particularly small community ` if... if they made complaints to us, we would then take every complaint and then make arrests on a particular day. The message to the Nomads would be that they're not untouchable, and a large number of the community is standing up against them. As the Nomads began appearing in court, the surrounding publicity flushed out a surprise witness to the vicious attack at Mountain Rock. We had a man who walked into a police station to say that he was at the concert. He was Joe Citizen, no gang connections, uh, and while in a Portaloo on the Sunday morning, he looked out and saw the assault and saw Dennis Hines slash the man's throat. Also during the` the trial phase, we received a phone call, uh, from a man who lived in Hawkes Bay. He said, 'I have a photograph you might be interested in.' On the morning, he'd taken a photo of the stage, but in the foreground was a line-up of Nomads wearing their patches, and metres in front of them was our victim and his associate walking towards them. And it was a snapshot in time of seconds before the assault took place, but it put all of our key people exactly where we knew they were and corroborated much of what was being given in court, but it was the photographic evidence of it. There was one super-trial with a large number of accused charged with a number of offences. Charges relating to robberies in Levin through to the aggravated assault at Mountain Rock saw the gang's ranks decimated. Out of 46 offences that we laid, uh, 43 convictions, and Nomads pretty much heading straight to jail. The Nomads never returned to their former strength. But a gang's strength wasn't necessarily measured by the number of patched members. Pound for pound, the Fourth Reich gang from the South Island were considered among the most evil criminals around. SIREN WAILS Detectives called to a fight at a Christchurch house arrived to find a man bleeding heavily on the driveway. Hey. Hey, can you hear me? Hey. Hey, can you hear me? (COUGHS, GURGLES) Hey. Hey, just put your head down and relax. The ambulance is on its way, all right? WALKIE-TALKIE CHIMES WALKIE-TALKIE CHIMES Check and see how far way that ambulance is > He had deep cuts in his head. He looked like a... being a skinhead, he looked like a boiled egg which had been half-cracked open, and there's blood running out him, all across his face. A stab wound to the ribs and a sucking chest wound and a severed finger. You got the impression early on that there's something serious and, um` and prolonged that happened. The inquiry dragged Derek Shaw far closer than he'd have liked to the extreme world of white-power gangs. Fourth Reich formed in Paparua Prison in the mid-late '90s, a group of like-minded men who I still can't figure out what their philosophy is or... or that, but they took on a very neo-Nazi, extremist philosophy, and they would be the most evil people I have ever dealt with. They oozed hatred, uh, and they didn't really discriminate. It wasn't just myself and the police they hated. They seemed to hate everybody and everything. SIREN WAILS The wounded man was rushed to hospital while Derek examined the scene. In the house, there was a considerable amount of blood. There'd been a fierce assault. There was blood on the couch. There was shoeprints through the kitchen and, on a TV, there was blood. Despite his wounds, the man refused to tell Derek what had happened. I later found out his name was Nathan, and he was an associate of the Fourth Reich skinhead gang. But we couldn't advance the inquiry, uh, much at all, because Nathan just wasn't` wasn't keen to... t-to speak to us. So that's when we sort of reassessed the situation. He was in hospital. He'd, um` He was going to be there for a couple of days. So went to the hospital and just tried to strike up a rapport with him. When he was discharged, I managed to spend time with him. I wanted his shoes for our examination, and although he could supply other clothing, he couldn't supply another pair of shoes, so we agreed to swap shoes. So he got a pair of my smelly, old running shoes, an-and I got his. OK, I just need you to sign this statement just to verify what you've said. And he just spent a long time just looking at the statement that he'd contributed to, which he wouldn't sign. Uh, he'd been sent from Nelson with some cannabis oil to deliver it to prisoners i-in Christchurch and that he was the courier for that. But... known or unknown to the Fourth Reich gang hierarchy, um, Nathan was a,... um, a drug addict. So it's like leaving the rat in charge of the cheese, really. When he arrived here, um, they were down quite a few cannabis, um, oil capsules, and so they` they wanted retribution. He said, 'This statement is true,' he said, 'but the moment I sign it, I'm signing my death warrant.' But he did sign the statement, which was quite an extensive statement and named the offenders an-and named what happened, and he recounted to us how he'd been walking in Stanmore Road in Christchurch with his girlfriend, when, uh, Ivan Googich and Greg Dunnell pulled up in a Cortina. They told him to get in, and they then took him to Essex Street in Christchurch, where he walked into the lounge, and he was blindsided from behind by either Googich or Dunnell, and then there was a systematic attack on him. He was just beaten. He believes at first they tried to break his jaw to send a message, but they couldn't. So, after kicking him and stabbing him, they then inserted a knife above his ear, right to the bone, and then pulled it across the top of his head. Um, by this stage, the fight had to-totally gone out of him, and they then dragged him to the TV, where they told him to nominate a finger. They then spent some time using a serrated bread knife, severing his finger. Couldn't cut it off completely, so they worked it backwards and forward till it snapped off. Nathan then went next door to get help, um, and it was at that point th-that we got called, and we found him on the driveway. (GURGLES) There was a` an impression found on the top of Nathan's shoes of Googich's shoes, where he had stomped, uh, on, uh, Nathan when he was on the ground... WHACK! ...and transferred blood from the bottom of his shoes on to Nathan's shoes. So very similar to a fingerprint. The more characteristics, the stronger the likelihood of the match. Dunnell was, uh, located here in Christchurch, and I arrested him. But he said nothing. Staunch. Followed their code and gave us no cooperation at all. Uh, but then, within a few days, um, the Nelson CIB had located, uh, Googich and, uh, some of our staff went there and spoke to him, and, again, said nothing. But they were remanded in custody, uh, an-and we went to trial, um, later that year, when Nathan came and gave evidence and gave outstandingly honest evidence. But it was supported by really good forensic work by the ESR. Forensic evidence from Nathan's clothes and the bloody shoeprints tied Googich and Dunnell to the gory crime scene. The jury believed Nathan, and the vicious thugs were sent to jail for eight years for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Out of, say, the 15 full members that there ever were, six of them are now doing life sentences for murder, and one has committed two murders. Um, so... 40% of the gang are convicted murderers. WHACK! Getting up close and personal with such remorseless criminals is a risky business, but the only way to investigate some organised crime is for detectives to enter the gang's inner sanctum. OMINOUS MUSIC A gang lifestyle doesn't come cheap. But an honest day's work? That's not on the cards. Gangs will always find an easy way to make money. It's either violence or drugs, and usually, the two are quite linked. They have other areas ` prostitution and, uh, dishonesty, that sort of thing ` but the drugs is the big one. The challenge for detectives investigating gangs is to get evidence that stands up in court, and that can mean venturing into the heart of gangland. As a young constable, Catherine McEvedy was dressed in civvies and sent to buy dope. I didn't look like a policewoman back in those days, so you know, a bit of spiky hair, a bit of the studded belt would, uh, cut it with the general population. So I used to be used to buy drugs from tinnie houses. One of the ones I remember really clearly was a guy selling to schoolkids, and so I went in dressed as a younger person. What? I went in three times. On the third time, he took me to the back of the property, and you were led through a few doors and then the steel door clunked behind you. Then I was thinking, 'Uh-oh. Here we go.' And he hit me up and said, 'You're a` You're a cop.' I was going, 'No, no, not me.' Thinking, 'Shit, how does he know?' I was going, 'No, mate. Not me. I'm not a cop,' and, 'Look, I just wanna buy some drugs.' And, you know, as you do, selling it as quickly as you can. And he went out, an-and he left me locked in this room, and I was thinking, 'How do I get out of here?' There's a steel door at the front. The windows are all barred. There was no way out, so you had to stand your ground. You are on your own, because you've got to use your mouth to talk your way out of whatever you get caught in. And he came back in 10 minutes later, left me to sweat for 10 minutes, and, uh, handed me a bag of drugs. Choice. Friend's waiting in the car. Choice. Friend's waiting in the car. Don't wanna stay and party, girl? Cheerily made my way out. 'Thank God I'm out of here.' And when that door slammed and I got around the corner, just that relief that he didn't pop me that time. And, uh, we made sure we got him. OMINIOUS MUSIC Gang tactics change over time. Buyers don't get invited into the dealer's house any more. Instead there'll be an anonymous exchange ` money for drugs. They had a what they call a dealing alley. It was a-a very defined route yo-you could go in, and they had a dealing window. You know, some classic signs on the window which they were telling customers the price. It was advertising, Mongrel Mob style. You handed over your money, you got your product, and you were out the door. Ross Tarawhiti targeted the drug business being run out of the Christchurch Mongrel Mob's headquarters; detectives bugging phones and listening to the gang's dealings. The Mongrel Mob have various different slangs. Uh, they... they call each other dogs, and they even get down to the stage where they start barking at each other and things like that. It's all meant to be a mark of respect, but it's quite humorous for us listening at the other end. They spoke in codes. When they wanted the extra product to come down to the pad house, they tried to make out they were doing renovations. But, uh, when you` when you hear 'send me 10 or 20 nails' every time, you know, not that many people go and buy a small amount of nails. So it wasn't too hard to work out what they were doing. The Christchurch detectives had heard and seen enough. They executed 38 warrants and arrested more than 40 Mobsters. All patched members were convicted, the gang pad bulldozed, and the Christchurch chapter of the Mob wiped from existence. There was a noticeable downturn in criminal activity as a result of removing these people from the community. But selling cannabis isn't the sole domain of the Mob. Up in Otahuhu, the Black Power were creaming it, running Auckland's biggest tinnie house. WOMAN: Head office was known as The Marae. Enough tinnies of cannabis were sold here to annually make this the $6m mansion. On a good day, up to $17,000 worth of drugs were being sold from that address. Um, average days, we were told, uh, was between $12,000 and $14,000 per day. And, uh, at times, it was just so busy, the whole street was blocked off with the vehicles that were coming and going. Operation Soprano, as it was known, went after the gang bosses to shut down the pad once and for all. It was a family-run organisation. Abraham Wharewaka Sr was the president. His brother was the serjeant-at-arms or the treasurer. His son was involved a great deal with the chapter, and, uh, a lot of the other associates that were locked up as part of the operation were` were nephews or` or sons of` of, uh, Abe and his brother. But the investigation showed that selling drugs was not the extent of the gang's crime; their home movies becoming evidence at the trial. There was also a lot of peripheral offending in relation to violence, possession of firearms, attempting to pervert the course of justice, trying to get witnesses to change statements and also manufacturing methamphetamine. Footage of Abe Jr assaulting his partner really showed the gang's true colours. Eh?! Didn't I?! Don't sit there crying, <BLEEP>. Don't sit there crying. The home movie ensured Abe Jr's day in court for the abuse. Guilty. The Wharewakas all went to prison; gang boss Abe Sr getting eight years. Detectives won that battle, but the rules of the game keep changing. After years of knowing who local gang members were and understanding their tribal systems, at the end of the '90s, a worrying new trend emerged. Detectives were disturbed to see rival gangs beginning to work side by side. When I first started the CIB and, uh, had dealings with the gangs, uh, it was a pretty loose collection of individuals who were, um, really drawn together by their love of, uh, raising hell and committing crime and living the` the easy life. The ethnic gangs tended to be involved in street-level offending, um, and it wasn't until we started seeing collaborations between the ethnic gangs and the outlaw motorcycle gangs that we really started seeing, uh, and perhaps being concerned about the level of, uh, organised crime that they might now be in and had the opportunity to` to drive. We've ce-certainly seen in, uh, you know, the last 15 years or so, um, gangs working together on a business level. There's two levels. There's the inter-gang level, where you... throw stones at each other, um, down the street there and be staunch. But there's the other side is business, and when it comes to business, business is supreme. Since we've got into the` more into the methamphetamine, um, there's been more a... a cooperative sort of, you know, 'this is business' type approach. We witnessed, in some of our operations, the coming together of Highway 61, Road Knight, uh, members, uh, Mongrel Mob members, uh, all talking about who they could bring to the table. So one might have a cook. Uh, one might be able to get precursors. So that's the` the, you know, the, um` the powders that you need to make the drugs, like Contact NT. Someone might be able to access glassware via someone. Um, and w-we sat and watched this and listened to this happening. So they'd say, 'I can bring this person and this person.' So you saw that breakdown of the barriers around the gangs because this was about business and making money. The Mongrel Mob had soldiers on the street. They had all the contacts. They knew who the users were and what their market was. They knew who lived where in the suburbs where their gang operated, whereas the white motorcycle gangs, they didn't have that sort of information. So the amalgamations allowed them to have a far wider distribution of their drugs, and now they are significantly donkey-deep in the distribution of methamphetamine. The Hells Angels, for instance, were as renowned for the corporate attire that many of their members wore as for the patches that they wore on their back. Two-piece or three-piece suits with simply the emblem as a marker on one of their lapels for the Hells Angels. We've had, uh, the international president o-of the Hells Angels was a NZer. The first ever chapter of the Hells Angels set up outside of the United States was set up in Auckland, NZ. We have a, uh` a long history of involvement with that gang and its international network of criminals. MAN: Officers gave a presentation, showing gangs like the Hells Angels, with 130 chapters worldwide, are seeking to control all major NZ motorcycle gangs. Police say, in February, the Hells Angels met several times with other gangs in Christchurch, like the Road Knights. The Hells Angels were, by far, um, far more sophisticated than our ethnic gangs in terms of their connection offshore, their ability to evade, uh, detection an-and work under the radar. < An FBI guy from the States says that Hells Angels in the United States are very heavily into drugs, < with Australian Hells Angels as well. Have you heard those things before? Sure, yeah, yeah. We hear them from time to time, but I mean, it's easy to alleged things like that. Once it's alleged and it's publicised, then the people get hold of it, and then that's where your rumours start. But there's been nothing proved at all. They have the capability and the ability to distribute and to import drugs, whether in collaboration with groups like Asian organised crime or financed by Russian organised crime. It doesn't matter. The Hells Angels started to go around the countryside and said, 'You know, we've got a white powder distribution network. We can make you quite wealthy 'if you'd like to join our network and distribute drugs on our behalf. 'But if you do that, you've got to reduce your other criminal offending.' They were adamant that if you wanted to become a trafficker on behalf of the Hells Angels, then you had to reduce your interaction with the police. So we actually had gang members who were taking off their patches and behaving themselves, and so a lot of people thought they were reformed, whereas those of us in the... in the crime scene knew that they were simply, uh, telling us that they were now part of the, uh, organised motorcycle gang distribution networks. We're a motorcycle club, not a gang. We're a motorcycle club, not a gang. < You're not a gang? Not really, no. It doesn't` Basically, there's four of us. Cos then you're putting us under the, like, street kids or street gangs and, uh, we're a motorcycle club, a brotherhood. For years, police have been hitting the gangs hard, but lopping off the head of the snake just meant another head grew somewhere else, or they took off their patches altogether. Detectives were looking for a way to make changes in gang culture come from the inside, because some of the young soldiers on the streets weren't getting the message about keeping under the radar. ALL LAUGH A Wanganui Saturday night means rival gangsters out looking for trouble. When a carload of Mongrel Mobsters hurled abuse at Black Power rivals... ALL: Sieg Heil! ALL: Sieg Heil! OBJECTS THUMP, TYRES SQUEAL ...they were sent packing. And from there, there was a bit of posturing between the two rival groups, and then later on, there's been another that's followed on, and it's just gradually got worse. Whanganui CIB boss Dave Kirby got the call late on a Saturday night that the local gangs were at it again. These guys have gone away and armed themselves with a firearm and come back for, kind of like, payback. < Shoot the boy. Shoot 'em, Nans. Oi, shoot them, motherfucker. There! Right there! Right there! Get all these dickheads! > There! Right there! Right there! Get all these dickheads! > GUN FIRES, ENGINE REVS I mean, things just escalated to the point that, yeah, we have a 2-year-old shot. But it all started from` from, um, just a shouting out of a Mongrel Mob slogan. Gang members aren't renowned for wanting to cooperate with the police. So these people were horrified about what they'd just seen, plus they were angry, obviously, that a child of one of their own had been killed, um, and they wanted retribution as well. We had to try and persuade them, 'Let us deal with it, 'and it'll be dealt with appropriately with the courts.' We were told, sort of, around 15 Black Power members hanging out at the front of the house. And the shot was fired through them, into the house, and killed a 2-year-old who was lying on the couch. We've got 15 Black Power members that are potential witnesses for us here as to who these people were in the cars that have driven past and who fired the shots. But then a breakthrough as witnesses from both sides opened up. Eventually, all those that were on that front lawn, um, came and told us, um, their version of what had gone on. Of the carload of Mongrel Mobsters involved, two of them agreed to give evidence themselves in exchange for protection from their fellow gangsters. It was probably one of the best lines, I think, at the pre-hearing. The one witness, he was getting a fairly, um, hard time, I suppose ` quite a` quite a questioning from some of the defence lawyers ` and, um, his response was, 'You know, I'm just being a voice for the 2-year-old.' There were three convicted at trial for murder. MAN: The guilty verdicts were handed down to Hayden Wallace, the shooter, Karl Check, the organiser, and Rangi Forbes, the driver of the car, in the drive-by shooting. Everyone we charged was convicted of some part of their involvement. So, yeah, no, I was absolutely stoked. WOMAN: Good job! Good job! Good job! <BLEEP>ing arseholes! They were really pleased i-in the memory of Jhia Te Tua that we could achieve a result and the person that pulled the trigger and those involved be brought to justice. The Mongrel Mobsters giving evidence proved that even lifelong gang members have a conscience. The challenge for detectives is finding a way to reach the kind heart under the tough exterior. Rotorua Detective Sergeant Chris McLeod has had many dealings with the local gang. The Filthy Few are a motorbike gang, but, uh, basically, they're` they're drug dealers. They sell methamphetamine and cannabis. The head of the Filthy Few, James Wilson, was known by all as Little Willy. He was a tattooist by trade as well as a drug dealer. He had a cross tattooed on his forehead, trying to emulate the cult killer Charles Manson. Some of his associates in the Filthy Few didn't like the evilness that that betrayed and, uh, softened it with a, uh, a swastika and then wrote Forever Filthy, uh, across his forehead as well. 32-year-old Tauranga woman Jo-Anne Van Duyvenbooden had fallen in with the gang. She'd started taking drugs and befriended Little Willy. They struck up a, uh, short, uh, liaison, um, and that was a` a sexual relationship at one stage, uh, but that ended very quickly. And then, uh, she made friends with, uh, another member of the` the Filthy Few ` um, a guy called Shades. Shades was the gang's serjeant-at-arms ` a kingpin position, technically third in the gang hierarchy but with responsibility for guns, ammunition and keeping all of the gang's members, contacts and customers in line. He would also organise if there was any justice to be dealt to other criminals that weren't paying their bills. Little Willy was very good friends with Shades. Took exception to the fact that he'd, in fact, been dumped by Jo-Anne and, uh, vowed that he was going to put a bullet into her at some stage. MAN: On a tranquil rural road just minutes from the centre of Tauranga, a violent murder. Police say the 32-year-old victim lived on the Welcome Bay property with a female flatmate. When the flatmate returned home at 3.30 this morning after a concert date in Auckland, she found the place ransacked. Police were called. The house had been trashed. Clothes and furniture had been dragged out and dumped down a bank. Under a mattress at the bottom of a gully was Jo-Anne's body. We had some very good detectives working the scene itself where Jo-Anne was found through meticulous examination of areas. There was grid searches done throughout 2 acres of the property, and on the veranda immediately outside Jo-Anne's bedroom, a piece of phlegm was found on the decking. That was secured by the scene detective and sent off to ESR, and it was found to be human material and had DNA qualities there. Investigators also found crucial clues in Jo-Anne's room, around the deck and down into the gully where her body had been dumped ` a trail of small pink threads from what looked like a hospital cast. And it was quite a distinctive pink colour. These shards of plaster cast proved to be very significant. Through our inquiries, it was revealed there were only three people in Tauranga that actually had this, uh, pink, um, plaster, uh, casting put on their, um` their breaks, and two of them were` were little young girls, and the third person, uh, ironically, was, uh` was Little Willy. Um, he had, uh, broken his wrist on his motorbike, uh, in an accident, uh, some weeks beforehand and, um, because he looked somewhat fearsome, um, some of the hospital staff thought it, uh, a bit funny that, uh, they'd supply this tough gang member, um, with a, uh` a pink cast. We were able to get Willy's DNA through a compulsion order. So it, uh, tied him into the scene. So he had some real questions to answer as to why his DNA was at the scene. MAN: Wilson's arrest comes only days after police voiced their frustration at the lack of help they were getting from some elements. Uh, there's now been a reversal in some quarters, and, um, people have begun to cooperate. That cooperation came from an unusual source ` Little Willy's mate and long-time gang member Shades. For Shades to even make a statement or to speak to the police was a huge, uh, step for him. It was, uh, right against his... his code as a gang member. He took this step because he was sufficiently concerned about Little Willy's behaviour and didn't think it was at all right that someone like Willy could expunge Jo-Anne from the earth like he did. Shades put aside all his loyalty and the long history between him, Little Willy and the Filthy Few by signing up to give evidence. Th-The signing up to give evidence was, uh` was only the first step, really, in, uh, getting him into court and giving that evidence. He would run hot and cold as to whether he was going to give evidence over the months leading up to the trial. At one stage, he'd run off to Te Kaha and hidden in someone's place up there, and fortunately, we had the ability to know where he was, and we got him the night before he was due to give evidence. He was pretty unkempt because he'd been on the run from us, because the trial had been running for a number of days. He was just in the` in the clothes that he was standing in. I went and got him a` a toothbrush and some toothpaste at about half past 10 at night, and I took it up to him in his, uh, hotel room, and he said, 'See, that's what makes you guys different.' He says, 'That's` That's why you treat us like human beings still. 'Even though we're... some of the scum of the earth, yo-you still treat us like human beings'. And that was just a little thing that` that tipped him over, he said, that, uh, he will always treasure ` a toothbrush, yep. We had Justice Elias, who was the head of the High Court at the time, and Shades was` was Shades. He was, uh, this long-haired, unkempt gang member. He just told it how it was. Uh, the defence did their best to try and tip him and rile him up, because he was a fiery character, and a classic line when the defence counsel, Louis Bidois, had suggested to him that he was, in fact, the murderer and not Little Willy, Shades did the old, 'I'm not the one trying to be Charles fucking Manson.' And he went like this with the crossbones above his` his forehead. He said, 'He's the one trying to be Charles fucking Manson. He's evil.' And, uh, oh, th-the jury just soaked it all up, because it was just so genuine and so real, uh, that, um, it went a long way to convincing the jury that, uh, yeah, we had the right man and, uh, that Shades was... was a good person deep down and, uh` and just doing the right thing. If detectives can find that person underneath the patch, big changes are possible. Tusha Penny's team arrested a gang member for assaults on his family and had his two children taken from him. He was pretty angry, as a lot of parents are when we take their children, but it was for a valid reason. And we had a very, uh, powerful moment, uh, last year when he agreed to come and talk to my team. Uh, we do training ` uh, regular training ` to make sure` on all sorts of things ` legislation, we get the Crown in; um, we` you know, things that we need to put in place. And, uh, the officer who dealt with him asked if he would come and speak to the child-protection team about what had happened to him. And he came in and he presented ` quite a` quite a big` quite a big man. And he told us about his life, and he said, 'When I was a young boy, 'all I knew about growing up was beatings, was violence.' He told us of one occasion where he remembered that his father had beaten him so, uh, harshly that he thought his leg had broken, and to this day, he carries a scar on his thigh. And he said, 'That's just all I knew. The beatings were every day, all day.' Um, I` uh, home wasn't a place. Uh, you couldn't have probably called it a home. It was a place where he went after school, and his stories were just very reminiscent and familiar of a lot of stories we hear of children in totally abusive environments. But his story is one of the most amazing and significant turnarounds that I've heard in 19 years. And he said to us, 'When you took my children from me, 'i-it made me realise and think about what was important to me.' And he said, 'I loved those boys.' He said, 'They were my life.' And he said, 'They're the only people in my whole life who'd given me unconditional love.' He says, 'Now I look back, I know my parents had let me down. I know other people had let me down. 'I'd gone into the gang. That's all I wanted. I wanted this whanau. 'I wanted this sense of belonging, this family.' He said, 'But I only had it from my children, 'and when you ripped them from me, I realised I had to turn my life around.' This man, he` man, did` did he walk it. He handed his patch back in. Now, th-that's a really big event ` for a gang member to hand their patch back in. I remember staff saying` Because you hear stories about you hand your patch back in, and you don't just hand it in. Things come with that. But he told us, 'Actually I handed it back in, and I said, "This is about my children. '"I need my children back."' And he said, 'I took down the pictures of the marijuana, 'and I took down all the gang paraphernalia, and I cleaned my house out.' He said, 'I just kept looking at the picture of my kids and knowing that I had to do it.' FLAMES CRACKLE He said, 'The first months were lonely.' He said, 'I remember being upset, lonely. No friends. I had no friends. 'I'd walked away from the only family I'd known for the last two and a half decades.' REFLECTIVE MUSIC It was so powerful, because every day we're arresting people for these offences, and I have no doubt that sometimes you can sit back and you can say, 'Am I making the difference I really want to make?' And you hear that one story, and you know, 'I'm in it for the long term. I'm in it for the long haul, 'because this is actually what it's all about.' Captions by John Ling. Edited by Desney Shaw. www.tvnz.co.nz/access-services Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013