"In Bird We Trust" is now the word at Head Hunters East HQ in Ellerslie, a tribute to recently departed senior member William "Bird" Hines. Photo / Jason Dorday
Roads from Auckland to Foxton are set to roar with the sound of hundreds of Harleys at the weekend as gangs ride south to farewell the feared and revered Head Hunter William “Bird” Hines.
On Thursday, as Hines lay in state at the Head Hunters East pad in Marua Rd, police were convening a high-level meeting at national headquarters in Wellington regarding the funeral and motorbike procession.
The funeral and ride, and how it will be policed, represent an early and major challenge for the incoming Government‘s tough talk on gang gatherings during the campaign.
As emotions run high, questions remain over whether they will adopt the hard-edged approach to outlaw motorcycle club funeral processions they promised.
Some expect it to be the biggest gang tangi in Kiwi history - and there are fears it could bring the traffic network in Auckland to its knees.
The Herald understands those fears, amid a sense of political pressure from the incoming Government, sparked police meetings with top brass this week to examine intelligence and plan for the weekend’s activities.
Hines’ body is expected to be taken from the East chapter pad at 232 Marua Rd on a final ride around Auckland, accompanied by bikers from the Head Hunters and various other outlaw motorcycle clubs.
The procession will then make the more than 500km journey south. It is unclear when the ride will begin but it is expected to be on Saturday morning.
Hines comes from the Foxton area and is expected to be buried alongside other family members at the Motuiti Marae urupā at Himatangi, just north of Foxton, on or around Monday.
On Friday, Head Hunters were gathering en masse at the Ellerslie pad, watched by a large contingent of police stationed up and down the road and on side streets. A steady stream of members, their whānau and supporters were arriving at the club to offer food and koha and pay their respects.
New marquees have been put up, along with signs bearing the phrase “In Bird We Trust”, by which Hines is already immortalised on the wall of the club’s inner sanctum inside Marua Rd.
Hines was serving a 17-year prison sentence for running a methamphetamine syndicate but was released by the Parole Board late last year on compassionate grounds.
He was living with type 2 diabetes, which required dialysis every second day and resulted in limb amputation, heart disease and end-stage renal failure.
His death was marked by family and friends paying respects to the “OG” (Original Gangster) on social media and his tangi is anticipated to be the largest gang funeral in New Zealand history.
Police issued a brief statement attributed to relieving Auckland City District Commander when approached for comment on their plans for the tangi, containing limited detail.
“We will continue to monitor, engage, and respond accordingly to any unlawful gang activity related to the funeral proceedings,” the statement said.
“The community can expect to see an increase in Police presence in related locations to ensure people feel safe and are safe.”
The esteem in which Hines was held in the Head Hunters fraternity is illustrated by a sign in the East chapter’s pad at 232 Marua Rd which simply states: “In Bird We Trust”.
The police are seeking for the premises, and other properties, to be forfeited to the Crown in a long-running case taken against the club’s alleged president, Wayne Doyle.
During the recent High Court trial, Doyle spoke warmly of his old friend Hines when asked why he continued to associate with people who had been involved in meth manufacture.
He described Hines as a “unique, amazing sort of a character”.
“How do you throw your friends out that have been beside you for years and years and years?” Doyle said.
“You don’t just throw someone out because they get into trouble. You’ve got to stand by them.”
Hines was released from prison shortly before his 70th birthday and had been living with a family member who provided 24/7 care in his final months.
A previous Parole Board decision noted Hines wanted to “make peace with his whānau as a consequence of his offending history on them”.
Hines’ criminal history stretches back to at least 1989, when he was caught with a loaded pistol in the lounge bar of a hotel. Pistols are prized in the criminal underworld, a weapon of status.
It was a sign of things to come for the then 36-year-old.
A few years later, he was convicted of kidnapping a man at gunpoint, then torturing him with pliers and an electric drill in a garage, because of a supposed debt.
The guilty verdict came despite the victim refusing to give evidence.
In sentencing Hines to four years in prison, Justice Robertson said no one was above the law.
“You just take the law into your own hands and use whatever is necessary to get what you perceive is your entitlement.”
Five years later, Hines and two other Head Hunters confronted an undercover police officer and held him at knifepoint.
“If you do not prove you are not a cop, then you are not leaving here,” was how Crown prosecutor Kieran Raftery recounted the conversation at the 1996 trial.
The undercover officer, whose cover story was running a scrapmetal yard, feigned fury at the allegation but was taken upstairs to his living quarters, where Hines and the others searched through his belongings for proof of his identity.
The officer managed to buy some time but was unable to entirely satisfy his captors. “They let him know that he was not off the hook,” said Raftery.
Again, Hines was convicted of kidnapping and jailed for 12 months.
But it was the lucrative profits of methamphetamine that took Hines from menacing standover man to the big time.
He was one of the ringleaders of a network who dubbed themselves the “Methamphetamine Makers Co Ltd”, alongside infamous bank robber Waha Safiti and meth cook Brett Allison.
The trio were planning to split a batch of methamphetamine to yield hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The business partners were busy falling out when police swooped in 2000 following Operation Flower.
Bugged conversations were played at the trial in which Saifiti and Hines were recorded talking about “whacking” people.
“Rest assured, we will not be made to look like fools here,” said Saifiti. “We will just whack anybody who needs to be whacked ... Whack him straight on the spot.”
After the raids across Auckland, police found the remnants of Allison’s lab in Henderson.
The 2000 litres of chemicals involved made it one of the biggest - and potentially most explosive - drug laboratories ever found. It took officials wearing breathing apparatus seven days to pull apart.
Its run-off waste alone contained 150 grams of methamphetamine, claimed to be worth $150,000.
Hines was sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to supply.
At the time, police said the Head Hunters network played a significant role in establishing the meth trade in New Zealand - something that plagues the country to this day.
After serving seven years for the Operation Flower drug crimes, Hines managed to stay out of prison until becoming the principal target of a new police investigation, Operation Sylvester, in 2015.
By this time, he sat at the very top of the Head Hunters hierarchy and was revered by gang members as a Godfather-type figure. Despite being in his 60s and riddled with health problems, “Bird” was still feared in the criminal fraternity.
Through surveillance and intercepted phone calls, Operation Sylvester gathered enough evidence to prove Hines was in charge of a group of Head Hunters and associates manufacturing methamphetamine.
Detectives covertly broke into a van, hidden inside a storage unit, where they found 136 grams of meth packaged for sale in ounce bags and surrounded by rice to keep it dry. There were also 9kg of iodine and 33 litres of hypophosphorous acid, both commonly used in the meth manufacturing process.
There was also enough illegal firepower inside the van to start a war: an M1A Springfield semi-automatic rifle, a pair of Heckler and Koch military-style rifles, a Lapua tactical rifle and a Smith and Wesson pistol wrapped in a blue bandanna - with traces of Hines’ DNA on the fabric.
Hines and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty but were convicted after a High Court trial in 2017, in which the judge was satisfied at least 1kg of methamphetamine was manufactured by the group.
In sentencing Hines, Justice Mathew Downs made special mention of the “sinister nature” of the firearms and drugs found inside the storage unit.
“This careful packaging, the nature and collection of articles, and the rental of the unit on the same day as the manufacture of the methamphetamine imply this was the work of an organised criminal enterprise. You led that enterprise,” Justice Downs said to Hines.
“And although you were careful to act from behind the scenes, I am sure you directed this offending ... You sat atop an organisation which made a very large amount of methamphetamine and intended to make more.”
At the time of his arrest, the Head Hunters were run by a committee led by Doyle and Hines, according to Detective Inspector Kevin McNaughton, a former head of the police Motorcycle Gang Unit who gave evidence at the trial.