Auckland gang warfare: Killer Beez member Joseph Rongo pleads guilty to firearms charge

A Killer Beez member who was arrested as police investigated gang warfare with the Tribesmen that was believed to have resulted in 21 shootings and nine arsons across Auckland - has pleaded guilty to a firearms charge.

Joseph Rongo, 21, was not accused of participating in the shootings and fires, but was with other gang members in August last year when police raided a Manukau motel, court documents state.

Underneath a bed in the motel room, police found a loaded 12-gauge pump-action shotgun with the serial number removed. Under another bed was a firearm carry bag that contained five live shotgun cartridges.

“Rongo stated that the firearm and ammunition located by police belonged to him,” police noted in the agreed summary of facts for the case. “He claimed nobody else knew the firearm was there except for him.

“He stated he had the firearm for his own safety.”

Briefly appearing in the dock today in the High Court at Auckland, Rongo pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. The charges carry a maximum possible penalty of four years’ imprisonment.

Justice Geoffrey Venning set a sentencing date for November.

Charges, ranging from illegal firearms possession to conspiracy to murder, are pending against others.

The Herald reported in mid-June last year that an unsteady ceasefire had been reached after talks between senior gang leaders. It came after a weeks-long blitz of tit-for-tat shootings attributed by authorities to the rival gangs.

The groups were once considered more closely aligned - with the Killer Beez starting out as more of a youth street gang feeding into the Tribesmen. But as the Killer Beez grew, so did tensions.

A series of events escalated tension before last year’s gang warfare, but one of them was purported to be a Killer Beez gathering in April in which some gang members fell off their motorbikes on an Auckland motorway. A video of the crash scene was shared widely on social media by Tribesmen members, the Herald has previously reported.

During a single weekend in May, police were called to five drive-by shootings.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.