Comanchero bust highlights key issues around effective policing - Jarrod Gilbert

THREE KEY FACTS:

• The Christchurch Comancheros gang chapter has been arrested.
• New Zealand has a massive, thriving gang underworld.
• A botched drug deal brought the gang down.

Dr Jarrod Gilbert is the director of Independent Research Solutions and a sociologist at the University of Canterbury.

OPINION

The large – and latest – Comanchero bust last week is incredibly significant.

Not least because it highlights some key issues around effective policing, the impact such busts have on the drug trade, and what it tells us about the much-hyped backpatch ban.

Since forming from 501 deportees in 2018, the Comancheros have become something akin to public enemy number one. The fact they patched over members of existing gangs didn’t endear them to those local groups, but in the eyes of police they are the very symbol of all that is wrong.

The Comancheros formed in Sydney in 1968, before expanding around Australia. They are best known for an internal feud that turned deadly in a pub carpark in Milperra in 1984, which left six gang members dead, and an innocent bystander.

Their arrival in New Zealand was marked by social media posts that included flashy – actually garish – motorcycles. Surrounding those bikes were modern gangsters.

The big, bearded biker in old jeans and leather had been replaced with designer clothes and flashy jewellery. Here was the next evolution of the ‘Nike bikies’ and the next evolution of organised crime.

Last week’s bust wasn’t the first for the New Zealand Comancheros - much of the gang’s original leadership is already in prison - but it is certainly the biggest and arguably the most significant. Among those arrested, police said, was the entire Christchurch chapter of the gang.

To the best of my knowledge this has only happened once before, and that was a sweep of the Red Devils in Nelson in 2011. The Devils were seeking membership of the Hells Angels and a foothold in the South Island. Police were determined to stop them.

Soon enough, a swathe of arrests were made in Nelson, and police locked up the entire Red Devils chapter. It quickly became clear, however, that the police had terribly overcharged the members, and the techniques for garnering evidence were illegal.

Police enthusiasm had become overzealous. It went from looking great to being a squib of an operation that was tied up in the courts and ultimately led to little. The Red Devils went on to successfully become Hells Angels.

Caution is therefore warranted in these Comanchero arrests, but given the amount of money and drugs confiscated, at face value the police case looks strong.

If the gang has been acting in concert to sell drugs, it will make the case somewhat rare. Drug dealing among gangs tends to be personal business rather than the business as a whole.

When organised crime is devolved among the membership, it is less of an existential threat to the group itself. Certain members might go down, but the group itself survives.

That’s a lesson the Comancheros may well be learning. Knocking out an entire chapter is a massive blow, and a boon for the police. If the cops look like the cat that got the cream, it appears they deserve to.

But what about the drug scene as a whole? What dent does it put in the market? The answer, unfortunately, is next to none.

While these busts are vital as they stop individuals or groups accruing huge swathes of illegal cash (which can be used to corrupt) and, of course, it brings people to account for committing serious crimes, the impact on the overall drug trade is minimal.

The demand for the drugs remains unchanged, and therefore new suppliers will simply step in to meet it. The economics of the underworld are textbook economics.

One might expect a short-term disruption to the Christchurch or South Island markets, but if I were a betting man I’d think there will be enough stockpiled that the incident won’t measure.

In the past, the only measure of a crimp in supply was increasing prices, but with wastewater testing we will be able to measure the impact of this bust in real time. Time, as they say, will tell.

Finally, to the oversized elephant in the room. Without a shadow of a doubt, this police operation was aided by the crooks self-identifying with backpatches.

Backpatches allowed police to positively – and incredibly easily – identify members of the gang (as opposed to family, prospects, or hangers on). They could quickly get a grip on who is who, monitor movements, and get the electronic surveillance required.

This operation was far from easy, but when patches are banned, and the Comancheros – or some new group – grows and recruits, these types of operations will never again be as easy as they are now.