Footage released during trial of gang member shooting which took place at Sofitel hotel Auckland in 2021. Video / Supplied
Jaimon Swann was sentenced to seven and a half years for drug charges.
The 28-year-old dodged two bullets as a gang feud between 501 upstarts and an old guard motorcycle gang spilled over into the swank Sofitel hotel.
Judge Evangelos Thomas cited Swann’s bragging about his drug trafficking prowess.
A former Head Hunters prospect who switched allegiances to two closely related rival gangs, finding himself at the centre of a violent feud that culminated in the high-profile shooting inside the lobby of a luxury Central Auckland hotel, has been sentenced to prison for major drug charges.
Jaimon Sofele Chairl Katoa Livingstone Swann, 28, was seen in CCTV footage scrambling to safety alongside a Sofitel employee during the April 2021 ambush as he checked out of the five-star Viaduct waterfront establishment on a busy workday morning crowded with bystanders. Neither man was injured, but the video showed a puff of debris as two bullets hit the wall next to them.
Swann, who is described in various court documents as an associate of the Mongols and the Comancheros, was on bail at the time. His home had been searched in December 2020 at the conclusion of a lengthy undercover investigation into the Comancheros dubbed Operation Cincinnati.
But neither the recent arrest nor the close call at the hotel appeared to slow him down.
One week after the shooting, an inventory note on his phone – later discovered by police – indicated he had $74,000 in cash and illegal drugs in his possession. The following month, as he tried to recruit an underling to pick up illicit packages for him that had been shipped from overseas, he bragged of his recent drug trafficking success.
“Will be every week,” he told the potential recruit over encrypted messaging app Wickr. “I do 7 a week for 3 month straight. Not one been caught.”
Jaimon Swann appears in Auckland District Court for sentencing on drug importation and supply charges. Photo/ Sylvie Whinray
That run of luck wouldn’t continue much longer.
It officially ended last week, when Auckland District Court Judge Evangelos Thomas ordered him to serve a sentence of seven and a half years’ imprisonment.
“You did that [drug importation and dealing] with the assistance of people below you in the Comancheros food chain,” the judge said. “You were making good money. You had influence and control over others below you in the food chain. You certainly directed buying and selling on a commercial scale.”
Gang war
The feud between the Head Hunters and the Mongols began on April 6, 2021, according to the agreed summary of facts for Hone Hawira, the confessed triggerman behind the Sofitel shooting that would take place two weeks later. Hawira, a Head Hunter who also goes by the surname Reihana, was sentenced in March last year to three years and 10 months’ imprisonment for the shooting.
Fellow patched Head Hunter Mikaere Puata-Chaney was sentenced to three years and five months’ imprisonment for the hotel shooting scheme, but he received a life sentence four months later with a minimum term of imprisonment of 20 and a half years after pleading guilty to the unrelated double-murder of his former partner and her father. A third man involved in the Sofitel shooting, gang prospect Tyran Panapa, was sentenced to three years and six months’ imprisonment.
Convicted double-murderer Mikaere Puata Chaney was on electronically monitored bail for his part in a high-profile hotel shooting when he murdered Geoffrey and Eliza Trubuhovich on July 15, 2022.
The Mongols and Comancheros were both initially overseas gangs that took root in Aotearoa after members were deported to New Zealand amid Australia’s “501″ crackdown. While considered rivals in Australia, the New Zealand chapters of the two gangs are more closely aligned, with associates of both groups intermingling and even living together at times.
Those tensions were brought to the forefront in April 2021, when Silverdale motorcycle repair business Outdoor Power Sports – long associated with the Head Hunters – was taken over by high-ranking Mongols member Mandal Sellick and renamed Northside Power Sports.
“As a result, members of the Mongols MC and the Comancheros MC began frequenting the business, and the members of the Head Hunters MC were effectively excluded from the business,” court documents for the Sofitel shooting state.
The Head Hunters were further incensed by the new name, feeling that the term “Northside” was out of bounds for other gangs because of the already well-established “Northside” faction of the Head Hunters.
Mandal Sellick (right) and former partner Sandy Younes were arrested after the October 2021 fatal shooting of Mars Rakeem in an Avondale home. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Swann was friends with Sellick, the new owner (who would go on to serve a prison sentence for an unrelated manslaughter). He was known to frequent the newly branded business.
On April 6 that year, a vehicle on a trailer outside the business was firebombed, causing minor damage to the exterior wall of the business.
The next night, a Browns Bay gym run by the Head Hunters was sprayed with bullets in a drive-by shooting. Two days after that, 21 shots were fired at a building attached to Sellick’s motorcycle repair business – thought by police to be a mistaken identity attack. There was a disorder incident between the Mongols and Head Hunters in Murrays Bay 12 hours later where a pistol was allegedly brandished. And five hours after that, also in Murrays Bay, multiple shots were fired into a house where Mongols and Comancheros members lived.
The next target, on April 11, was the Head Hunters headquarters in Mt Wellington. Around 30 shots were fired at the building, which was occupied at the time.
Swann, described in court documents as the “Mongol MC complainant”, started staying at the $429-per-night Sofitel on April 12 and stayed there until the morning of the hotel lobby shooting three days later.
A CCTV still shows the moment shots were fired at Jaimon Swann inside the lobby of Auckland's five-star Sofitel Hotel on April 15, 2021.
The Head Hunters members started staying at the same hotel hours before the shooting. Prosecutor Robin McCoubrey told jurors at a November 2022 trial that it was hard to swallow the idea that the “utterly bizarre” one-night stay just happened to coincide with a stay by a turncoat Mongols associate.
“They’re not there to have a facial in the spa,” he said. “They’re not there to have cucumber sandwiches at high tea. They’re there to do a job.”
Swann did not give evidence at the Head Hunters members’ trial or submit a victim impact statement at their sentencing, an unsurprising development for crime victims who abide by “gang code”, which often includes not co-operating with police.
Swann, however, didn’t have a choice about participating in last week’s hearing. He faced sentencing on six methamphetamine and cocaine charges – the majority of which carried maximum possible sentences of life imprisonment.
His troubles first started in December 2020, when police seized his cellphone while executing a search warrant at the end of the Operation Cincinnati investigation into the Comancheros.
“The iPhone contained a slew of evidential material that implicated Mr Swann in the supply of controlled drugs, amongst which was the class A controlled drug methamphetamine,” the agreed summary of facts for his case states. “Based on the nature of messages, notes, images, and videos contained within the phone memory it is apparent that Mr Swann has been involved in drug dealing activity for a prolonged period.”
Images from Jaimon Swann's seized phones showed evidence of large-scale drug dealing. Photo / NZ Police
One message chain showed him selling a “round” – one ounce – of methamphetamine for $5500 to a customer in May that year. The following month, he bargained with the same buyer for another ounce.
“Hi how much is that car we was talking about?” the buyer asked in coded language.
The buyer responded: “Algd. There’s a cheaper one up this way thanks anyway.”
Swann offered to lower the price by $1000 but said he couldn’t go any lower. They met later that afternoon in Auckland Central’s Victoria Park.
Police outlined other methamphetamine deals, including one conducted over Facebook Messenger and Wickr.
On December 1, 2020, one day before the police seized his phone, he told an associate with the screen name “Steaknchhese8″ that he had “f*** loads of maka” – meaning “rock”, or meth – and that he could sell a kilo for $195,000.
A note on his phone from July 2019 appeared to list $420,000 worth of sales he had made to the Comancheros, Hells Angels and Bandidos gangs. Photos saved on his phone showed large quantities of drugs and cash.
Photos taken from Jaimon Swann's seized phones included some showing large quantities of drugs and cash. Photo / NZ Police
Police returned to Swann’s home in May 2021 – six months after the first search and one month after the Sofitel shooting. This time they seized his replacement iPhone and an encrypted Ciphr phone, a device coveted by high-end drug dealers, even though it costs $2500 per year to operate, because police cannot intercept messages. More messages were uncovered that would form the basis of new drug supply and importation charges.
The day before the search, he had recruited another underling to pick up a package for him.
“Yup sweet as I pay you 5k address and it’s under fake name so don’t worry just needs to be signed off,” he explained. “And it’s tracked so when it gets here I can see it’s being examined or not I never been caught before.”
Kingpin or one-man band?
Swann’s near miss in the Sofitel shooting was not mentioned last week as he appeared in the dock for sentencing, but his association with the Comancheros was acknowledged. He is not currently a member of any gang, his laywer said.
Crown prosecutor Ben Kirkpatrick suggested a starting point of 13 to 14 years’ imprisonment for the drugs charges given the quantities of drugs alluded to on his phone and what appeared to be either a “leading” or “significant” role in the import schemes.
Defence lawyer David Stevens advocated for a starting point of nine years, suggesting that anything over 10 years was “not be justified by the summary of facts”. The contents of Swann’s phone, he said, suggested his client was mostly a “one-man band” or perhaps “middle management”. A drug kingpin would have a more sophisticated operation and wouldn’t risk being involved in the importation and direct sales as Swann was, he argued, adding his client wasn’t “necessarily the architect” of the imports.
But the judge seemed sceptical, based on the messages found on Swann’s phone, that he was taking direction from someone higher.
Jaimon Swann appears in Auckland District Court for sentencing on drug importation and supply charges. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
“What we know is there have been multiple imports – lots of them,” Judge Thomas said, referring to Swann’s text message bragging about having brought in “seven a week for three months” without having been caught.
The defence lawyer said those words shouldn’t necessarily be taken at face value – they could be the empty promise of someone trying to “assure the other party there’s a low risk” in picking up a package for him.
“He lives and dies by his word, doesn’t he?” the judge responded.
Despite Swann’s bragging, the actual evidence points to “a smattering of transactions” over a 15-month period, Stevens said.
“This was something you were going to keep doing for as long as you could possibly get away with it,” Judge Thomas said, settling on a starting point of 12 years.
Photos taken from the cellphones of Jaimon Swann, who faced sentencing on six methamphetamine and cocaine charges. Photo / NZ Police
He uplifted the sentence by 5% to account for the latter half of the offending taking place while Swann was on bail for the first half. But he then allowed sentence reductions of 15% for his guilty pleas, 5% for his relative youth at the time, 5% for his remorse letter and rehabilitative efforts and 15% for his difficult background.
“It’s easy to see how you ended up in a gang ... addicted to methamphetamine – how you felt this was a better family than your own,” the judge said of his troubled upbringing, warning that the discount wouldn’t be applied again if Swann commits more crimes.
“You only get to roll that dice once,” he said, encouraging the defendant to make the most of rehabilitative efforts. “It’s about creating a life that you’re proud of.”
Swann was denied a discount for the time he spent on restrictive electronically monitored bail awaiting trial and sentencing because he was found to have “foiled” his ankle monitor, a common breach that makes it so an offender can’t be tracked.
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.
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