Operation Ulysses centred on the dealings of the Rebels gang. Photo / Supplied
They buried money, carried out mafia-like tactics, put a price on a person's head, and used coded communications. But eventually, police took down their business-like drug empire. Kelly Makiha reports.
They'd sit at a table and discuss business as if it were a legitimate board meeting.
There were pricing plans, structures and goals, one-on-one catch-ups, and reward systems.
But underneath the business facade was a criminal underworld involving buried money and drugs, Mafia-like tactics, a $10,000 price tag on a drug debtor's head, secret communications and attempts to thwart the justice system.
Court documents released to the Rotorua Daily Post Weekend reveal how the criminal underworld worked to make hundreds of thousands of dollars spreading drugs - mainly methamphetamine - throughout the North Island.
James Patrick Duff was the kingpin and was this week sentenced to 15 years' jail. He'd made a living out of selling drugs for 18 years and knew tricks to avoid detection.
Burying money and drugs away from his home was one way he tried to ensure he wasn't caught red-handed should police come knocking.
Except, the police were one step ahead.
They had set up surveillance months earlier as part of Operation Ulysses, and knew where his secret hiding places were.
Covert cameras were installed on rural roads near his home, and police watched as Duff visited to bury items.
At one spot, police found 333g of methamphetamine. They found $9980 cash at another.
Duff, 51, was president of the Rebels gang chapter and would demand a level of respect. His criminal colleagues referred to him as "captain", "cap" or "number 1".
During the investigation period between July and October 2019, police estimate Duff distributed at least 3kg of methamphetamine, 130 tabs of LSD, multiple ounces of MDMA and about 20 pounds of cannabis.
His right-hand man was Mark Timu Glassie. As chapter vice-president, Glassie had the role of maintaining logistics and order within the group. He was referred to as VP.
He was sentenced to seven years' jail in February. Judge Hollister-Jones described his offending as using "mafia-like tactics".
While he was deep in criminal dealings, he also held down a legitimate job as a youth worker for an Oranga Tamariki-linked agency where he would provide support, mentoring and role modelling for at-risk youth. The name of the agency has been suppressed.
His employment saw him acting as a caregiver and youths were put into his custody by Oranga Tamariki via the agency, and this included them living at his home.
Youths were used in the deals and were taught how to destroy evidence should the police come.
There were four patched members who worked hard on the gang's core business.
Below them were a group of nominee members, or "noms", also known as prospects. Noms were required to do whatever patched members asked. Sometimes this included gardening at Duff's house.
Duff lived at a rural North Island property. For legal reasons, the Rotorua Daily Post Weekend has not named the locations of where he lived and where much of the offending took place.
Their weekly meetings were referred to as "church" and held in a double garage, normally on Friday nights.
Those attending the meetings would normally start proceedings by snorting ecstasy (MDMA) before discussing business.
On the agenda was gang business, such as issues affecting the chapter as well as the wider Rebels gang.
They discussed upcoming charges faced by gang members and came up with plans to pervert the court process. They talked about growing their supply networks for illicit drugs and their summer cannabis-growing strategies.
Each patched member would sell drugs on behalf of Duff either directly themselves or through their own established distribution channels.
Aside from the group meetings, Duff would hold one-on-ones with gang members and would supply bulk amounts of drugs on credit, expecting to be repaid in days or weeks.
During the investigation, Duff and Glassie met with a man and supplied him with 1kg of methamphetamine, valued about $125,000. But the man failed to meet up with them in the weeks to follow to pay his debt and the agreed share of the profit.
Duff became enraged and launched a search for the man that involved the gang members hunting all over the North Island.
Whoever captured the man and brought him to Duff would get a $10,000 reward.
One gang associate offered to use an area of his house, which he described as a "dungeon", to keep the man - once captured - for a short period.
Two months passed and they had failed to flush out the wanted man - angering Duff. Glassie then came up with a plan to use a woman to make a false complaint about the man. That way, they would have the police looking for him too.
The woman went to police and told them the man had stolen her guitar. She was compensated for making the false complaint with either drugs or money.
Glassie went on a major cannabis deal in Auckland in July 2019 and took three youths with him.
With them, they had 22 pounds of cannabis valued at $88,000. One of the gang associates took 4 pounds to a deal but was robbed by the group he was doing the drug deal with. They took all his cannabis and his vehicle.
Glassie realised he had failed Duff and went into hiding. Police later arrested four of the gang members in an Auckland carparking building and charged them with possessing cannabis.
Duff, Glassie and two others from the gang hatched a plan to make one of the newer members take sole responsibility for the cannabis. Given he was a "nom" and not a patched member, he was told if he "put his hand up", he would be given only a community-based sentence or short jail term.
He was told his story needed to be "watertight" and practised for it to be accepted as genuine and in return, he would get his patch and Duff would buy him a motorbike.
The court documents outlined how Duff arranged drug dealing with several others, including setting up an elaborate hydroponic cannabis operation with one of the associates in Auckland and supplying bulk lots of methamphetamine to street-level dealers in various towns throughout the North Island.
On several occasions at the gang pad, a man offered Duff the opportunity to "place an order" for anything he wanted over the internet.
The man explained how he had stolen credit card numbers and information he could use to dishonestly get items through the internet that could then be delivered to associates in another town and delivered to Duff.
Duff put in orders for shoes, clothing, alcohol, watches, radio scanners and indoor horticultural grow tents. The pair would gather around a computer and look at the various websites that were best to use the stolen credit card numbers on.
The man detailed to Duff the intricacies of the fraud and which sites were easier to target than others. The items Duff asked for, including a significant quantity of new sports shoes, were found when police raided Duff's house.
There were several other new items found at Duff's home but police couldn't identify a source of where they had been bought from.
Court documents revealed how Duff got bulk amounts of ecstasy from a supplier in Auckland and then supplied it to others.
They detailed how one prospect became involved in selling LSD after doing his time working for Duff.
The prospect would go to Duff's house almost daily and mow lawns, do gardens and other general maintenance.
One day, Duff called the prospect into the gang pad and explained to him the effects of LSD and how it should be sold and for what price. He was then given a quantity to sell on Duff's behalf.
Duff was also involved in illegally buying firearms. A gang associate met Duff at the gang pad and showed him a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. He liked it so much, he took it outside on the deck and fired seven rounds. He told the associate if he would get 100, he would buy 100.
The documents also revealed how Duff teamed up with another man who was an expert cannabis grower to have a prosperous drug-growing operation.
Duff agreed to fund the equipment and supply seedlings. The pair "enthused" over how they'd grow more than 1000 plants for the season and hoped to make between $1m and $2m from the operation.
In an effort to keep police from knowing what they were up to, those involved in Duff's circles were encouraged to use coded words — these included Coca-Cola for cocaine and cardboard for LSD.
Glassie encouraged one of his dealers, a Black Power gang member, to use an encrypted messaging app called Signal. The application allows users to use their phones to encrypt their calls and texts and transmit them over the internet.
Often when a conversation involved Glassie and the Black Power member having to talk about specifics in their drug dealing, Glassie would cut him off mid-conversation and encourage him to switch to the Signal app.
The homes of those identified through surveillance as being involved were raided by police in October 2019.
Police found a clandestine methamphetamine lab, $40,000 in cash, methamphetamine with a street value of $360,000, 4.3kg of dried cannabis and 500 cannabis plants.
The police head of the operation, Detective Senior Sergeant John Wilson, said the court's sentence sent a clear message that if people chose to supply illicit drugs, police would target them and hold them to account.
The arrests had made a big dent in those wanting to get their hands on drugs, he said.
Criminal proceeds recovery action is under way relating to two homes, and vehicles and motorcycles.
The council has also been served with judicial review proceedings.