Motorcycles, cars and cash were among the $2.1 million of assets forfeited by senior Mongrel Mob Notorious member Joseph John Morrell after a 2021 police investigation. Photo / NZ Police
This story was first published in December 2023.
A young Mongrel Mob leader managed to accrue more than $2 million worth of assets despite telling tax authorities he earned an average income of just $35,000 each year.
Joseph John Morrell, 34, was the “captain” of the Mongrel Mob Notorious chapter in Hawke’s Bay until his sudden death in May 2021.
Just a few weeks earlier, the police had been granted High Court orders to freeze five residential homes, six vehicles, three Harley Davidson motorcycles, $74,000 in cash and bank accounts, a boat, and a Kobelco digger following an investigation into Morrell’s financial affairs.
Better known as “Triple J”, Morrell was the main target of Operation Dusk and police were able to establish that his wealth was derived through illicit means, allowing the Mongrel Mob boss to live a lifestyle beyond legitimate means.
“This is an example of police successfully targeting organised crime through both criminal and civil court jurisdictions,” said Detective Sam Buckley, of the Central Asset Recovery Unit.
“One of the primary reasons that organised crime exists is to make money and this result should show people participating in this activity, that they will be held accountable.”
The $2.1m worth of assets were forfeited in September but the details of the police investigation can now be publicly revealed for the first time, after the Herald was granted access to the court file.
Tax records showed Morrell had declared an average annual income of $35,000 over the past six years, although a forensic analysis of his bank accounts showed cash deposits of $233,402.
Police also identified $185,148 in cash spending although detectives believed the total was likely to be higher.
This included a 12-day family holiday to French Polynesia in January 2020, in which the $32,678 bill was paid in bundles of cash.
On their return home, Customs searched the Morrell family’s luggage and found $13,500 in cash that was not declared.
Another family trip to Taupō in May 2020 was also paid for in cash, including skydiving ($3860), hotel accommodation ($5600) and a 4WD excursion ($1163).
As well as the significant amounts of cash, Morrell and his wife were able to purchase five residential properties in Hawke’s Bay. One was the home where they lived with their five children, and four others were rentals. They collected $151,000 in rent payments over four years, although this income was not declared to Inland Revenue.
All the properties had been extensively renovated, which again had been paid for in cash.
Morrell also had a fleet of cars, including vintage Fords, which are prized by the Mongrel Mob, and a trio of expensive Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Most of these vehicles were registered in the names of family — including his teenage son, who didn’t have a driver’s licence at the time — and friends in order to distance Morrell from his ill-gotten gains.
“[Morrell and his wife] are living an extravagant lifestyle that is well outside what their declared income should allow them to enjoy,” Buckley wrote in an affidavit to the High Court.
“This demonstrates his access to a significant ‘unknown’ source of cash, which … supports a belief that this cash is derived from crime.”
Buckley, the officer-in-charge of the financial investigation, put this down to Morrell’s position as the captain of the Mongrel Mob Notorious chapter in Hawke’s Bay.
“Members and associates of this gang are responsible for the wholesale distribution of methamphetamine across the Hawke’s Bay,” Buckley said.
“As a senior member of a hierarchical organisation, I believe [Morrell] will be aware of the proceeds of this offending, assisting in its facilitation and gaining benefit from it.”
The detective outlined a series of recent police raids on the drug trade which involved the Notorious chapter.
This included Operation Lariat where 13 people, including a patched Notorious member, were convicted on a range of drug dealing and firearms offences.
The ringleader of this particular drug syndicate was Shane Tamihana, also a professional poker player, who was jailed for 13 years.
Surveillance photos showed Tamihana wearing Notorious-branded supporters’ clothing, and that he was in contact with Morrell during this time.
Buckley also referenced Operation Casino which led to 22 people being charged with drug dealing and firearms offences in 2020.
Among them were senior Mongrel Mob members Daniel Eliu and Laki Sulusi, who are now dead.
Eliu was shot outside a drug counselling meeting in Auckland in Christmas 2022, while Sulusi died from natural causes in 2021 a few months after his arrest.
Sulusi’s $500,000 home in Napier and six classic cars were also restrained by police in a separate case. One of those cars, a 1963 Ford Galaxie, was registered in Morrell’s name.
The pair were in regular contact leading up to their arrests, Buckley said in his affidavit.
The detective also named four other patched Notorious members who had been dealing methamphetamine during that period.
“These investigations confirm that the membership of the chapter that [Morrell] leads have been involved in drug dealing at the most serious level,” Buckley said.
He believed it was “not a coincidence” that the Mongrel Mob Notorious boss had been able to accrue $2m worth of assets, despite having such a modest income.
“Police observations have identified clandestine behaviours consistent with criminal activities, and it has been evidenced that [Morrell] has a disposition and propensity to disguise and conceal his wealth,” Buckley said in his affidavit.
“The combination of excessive and unexplained cash availability, when combined with his past criminal disposition and current behaviours, support grounds for belief that [Morrell] is actively involved in serious crime, likely to be drug dealing and money laundering.”
At the time of his death — which a Coroner is investigating as a suspected suicide — Morrell had not been charged in Operation Dusk, although the Herald understands it was likely the Mongrel Mob leader would have been prosecuted.
But his assets were forfeited under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act, a law under which the police do not need a conviction.
They only have to show that someone profited from criminal offending to the lower standard of proof applied in civil cases — “on the balance of probabilities” — rather than surpassing the more difficult “beyond reasonable doubt” threshold for criminal cases.
The confiscation of Morrell’s ill-gotten gains comes shortly after the previous Labour government strengthened the already powerful criminal proceeds law which the police have used to restrain more than $1 billion worth of assets from suspected criminals since 2009.
Under the recent change to the law, police would be able to ask the High Court to restrain — and later forfeit — the assets of anyone “associated” with an organised criminal group, if their declared income was insufficient to pay for them.
That was designed to target the leaders of gangs, and organised criminal groups, who the police allege had structured their affairs to “insulate” themselves from involvement, or even knowledge of, profit-driven crimes committed by their members.
Once the forfeited assets were sold, the money would be put into the Proceeds of Crime Fund from which agencies could make an application to fund crime prevention as well as drug and alcohol rehabilitation initiatives.
Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.
As the crowd chanted, Seymour walked back into the Beehive with his MPs.