Drug trade: Cooks hunted down to work for gangs

The meth business is so lucrative gangs have fought over cooks. They've even been kidnapped by one gang from another.

Brett Allison used to cook for the Tribesmen but a dispute over money and a motel shootout led to his being taken over by the Head Hunters.

Allison is serving a 10-year jail term after being found in a methamphetamine lab so big the risk of it exploding prompted a neighbouring school to be evacuated.

Convicted with Allison were senior Head Hunters William Hines and David Dunn.

Another meth cook, Tony Jacomb, who was acquitted in the case in which Hells Angel leader Andrew Sisson was convicted, works with both gangs. He's since been convicted for his part in a Head Hunter syndicate and was jailed last month for six years.

New enterprises of significance are taken over.

"In Auckland particularly, you can't manufacture or distribute methamphetamine without the sanction of an outlaw motorcycle gang because if you do and they find out, they will come and say, 'You are now working for me'," says organised crime specialist Detective Sergeant Darryl Brazier.

"People have been hurt quite badly because of their non co-operation, but of course those people are not interested in making a complaint.

"They go to hospital and get treated for broken knees, broken legs, broken arms. That's the warning.

"So next thing they are manufacturing for the gangs."