Police raided the Comancheros gang in April 2019, seizing millions in cash, a $595,000 Bently, Range Rover and gold-plated Harley Davidsons in Operation Nova. Video / Police
Police have seized $250 million in real estate assets from suspected criminals in just five years.
The property seizure crackdown is targeted at organised crime and stripping gangs of luxury homes as well as high performance vehicles, boats, jewellery and cash.
The Herald can also reveal that real estate agentshave reported 170 suspicious transactions under new anti-money laundering laws which came into force in January last year - with 28 of them escalated by police for further investigation.
Figures released under the Official Information Act show police asset recovery units have restrained 328 individual properties since 2015 under asset seizure laws.
The combined value of the restrained real estate was $250m.
Police Financial Intelligence Unit manager Detective Inspector Christiaan Barnard told the Herald the five largest real estate seizures last year were worth a combined $22.16m.
They included rural and residential property and the seizures were associated with drug and money laundering crimes.
Patched members of the Comanchero gang from Australia have set up a chapter in New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Meanwhile, more than $100m in total assets was seized from criminals in the past year alone - a 65 per cent jump on the previous year.
This involved nearly 500 individual assets, including bank accounts, real estate, cash, vehicles, e-currency and jewellery.
Police say about 80 per cent of all restrained assets stem from drugs and gangs, and it's not unusual for detectives to find large sums of cash hidden under beds, inside walls or buried underground.
Barnard said the largest asset recovery operation last year netted nearly $18m in seized bank accounts as part of a major money laundering enterprise.
The top four asset restraint operations all involved money laundering with seized assets totalling $41.7m, including cash, bank accounts, motor vehicles, virtual assets and residential and commercial property.
Fraud operations were the next most lucrative, with four seizures restraining $23.41m in property, cars, boats and bank accounts.
Meanwhile a methamphetamine operation restrained $4.46m in assets which included jewellery and precious metals.
Earlier this year then Police Commissioner Mike Bush said organised crime was "all about the money".
"We're intensifying our focus on the proceeds of that crime as part of our strategy to combat it.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush says police are focused on removing the influence of gangs by stripping them of ill-gotten assets and wealth. Photo / Jason Oxenham
"By focusing on the proceeds, we deprive criminals of their assets and therefore their influence."
Home detention, now police targeting assets
The Herald reported in February that police were using the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act to seize millions of dollars in assets from a South Auckland business owner because of health and safety breaches that resulted in a worker's death.
Ron Salter has already served home detention for the 2016 death of Jamey Lee Bowring, 24, at the Salters Cartage Ltd yard in Wiri.
But he now risks losing everything after police legally restrained his family home, along with family trusts, a bach and a waste fuel business
The police action against Salter is unprecedented, having usually been associated with drug offending and organised crime.
Ron Salter, owner of Salters Cartage, where worker Jamey Lee Bowring was killed when a tank he was working on exploded. Photo / Dean Purcell
Comancheros raids
In April last year police seized about $4m in assets during raids on Comancheros gang properties in Auckland.
The haul included several luxury Range Rovers, a Rolls-Royce Wraith, two Harley Davidson motorcycles, a $10,000 gold chain and a $13,000 Louis Vuitton bag.
Police arrested six people and seized luxury vehicles and Harley Davidson motorcycles after executing search warrants targeting the Comanchero gang in April. Photo / File
And in January the search of a Feilding property revealed a sophisticated cannabis cultivation operation with more than 1100 cannabis plants.
Two people were arrested and the property, valued at $1.6m, was restrained along with $840,000 cash, vehicles and farm-related equipment.
Police seized about $4m in luxury property and assets in raids targeting the Comanchero motorcycle gang in Auckland last year. Photo / File
Since January last year real estate agents have been required to report suspicious activity to the police financial crime unit under tough new anti-money laundering laws.
The Herald can reveal that agents reported 144 suspicious activity incidents during 2019 worth $290,000, 18 suspicious transactions worth $2.63m and eight suspicious international fund transfers totalling nearly $190,000.
In the five years prior, real estate agents made just five reports of suspicious activity to police totalling $1.36m.
Barnard said police had escalated 28 reports from the real estate sector last year for further analysis or investigation.
