The Government’s gang patch crackdown continues with police making more arrests and seizing paraphernalia from gang members across the country yesterday.
Police conducted a road checkpoint on Mt Wellington Highway in Auckland around 10pm and noticed a 33-year-old man – a passenger in a vehicle – wearing a Head Hunters Supporters sweatshirt.
The sweatshirt was seized and the man was bailed to appear in Auckland District Court.
Around 5.25pm, Whakatāne police noticed a vehicle with no front bumper on Bridge St. The driver, a 28-year-old Black Power member, was seen wearing a Black Power cap.
When police approached the man when he was out of the vehicle, he had changed his cap to a plain one. However, when asked, he handed over the original cap and was subsequently arrested.
A further two males, a 21-year-old Black Power member, and a 52-year-old with gang associations, were arrested yesterday in Eastern Bay of Plenty for displaying gang insignia.
Police arrested a patched Black Power member wearing a Nomads baseball cap around 12.45am on Cuba Mall in Wellington.
The 27-year-old is due in court on a gang insignia charge, and also on a charge of possessing instruments for methamphetamine use.
A police on patrol on Southampton St, Hastings at around 11.45am saw a man walking along the footpath wearing a sweatshirt with a Mongrel Mob symbol on the back. The 30-year-old Mongrel Mob member was arrested and the insignia seized.
A 35-year-old Mongrel Mob member was seen by police running north on High St in Dannevirke yesterday afternoon, wearing a black and red Mongrel Mob shirt.
He is due in court in Dannevirke at the end of this month.
Around 6.40pm yesterday, a woman was observed wearing gang clothing in Marton. Police established that she had just been released from prison and was wearing the clothing she had gone in wearing.
She was subsequently given a warning.
Shortly before 9am, a shoplifting report was made via Auror in New Plymouth, with the offender identifiable and wearing clothing with Black Power-related insignia.
A search warrant was subsequently obtained, and the 51-year-old man was arrested inside a store in Waitara later that afternoon.
He is due in court at the end of November.
On Friday, within hours of the new insignia ban, a 61-year-old gang president was targeted during an early morning raid in West Auckland.
Photos from the scene show patched members being led out of the pad in pyjamas and handcuffs while members of the Armed Offenders Squad stand guard.
Police led handcuffed members of the Head Hunters gang out of the property in their pyjamas.
A warrant for the Henderson pad came after five patched members were spotted on motorcycles on Thursday.
A 52-year-old was identified as one of the members and was arrested this morning.
Assistant Commissioner Paul Basham said the warrant should “serve as a notice” to gang members that police will follow up on breaches of the new law.
It follows more gang members from both the North and South Islands having been arrested or summonsed to court for failing to adhere to the laws that came into effect at midnight on Wednesday.
A police spokesperson said it was a “pre-planned search warrant”.
They said they would not release information on what was seized until the search had been finished.
The same pad was raided in August and police seized a firearm, cannabis and cash labelled “drugs profit”.
Police have cracked down on gangs this week with the introduction of the Gangs Act 2024.
The legislation came into force at midnight on Wednesday and police took action almost immediately, stopping a vehicle displaying gang insignia at 12.03am.
Police say they made “a handful” of arrests and seizures of gang patches and insignia yesterday.
The act bans the display of gang patches in public places and provides extra tools to target gang-related crime and intimidation.
Courts will be able to issue non-consorting orders, and police will be able to stop criminal gang members from associating and communicating.
“Gang patches will no longer be able to be worn in public. To earn the right to wear a gang patch you have to have committed violent crime. There are a trail of tears and victims behind each one of those gang patches,” he said in a statement.
Assistant Commissioner Paul Basham said police would be “actively enforcing any breaches” with a nationally led plan called Operation Nickel.
“If you wear a gang patch in public, or display a sign or symbol associated with a gang, you can expect the attention of police, either at the time of the offence or at a time that suits us,” he said.
“There will be no excuses. Anyone found in breach of the law can expect the certainty that police will take action.”
New Gang Disruption Units have been set up across the country to help identify, target and catch priority offenders.
This involves investigating reports of breaches and, when necessary, gathering enough information to carry out search warrants and arrests to retrieve patches or other insignia.
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