Inside Christchurch’s Mongols MC pad: How a drive-by shooting led to a cache of guns and drugs being found

Jason Ross, the South Island boss of the Mongols MC gang, pleaded guilty on Friday.

The arrival of the Mongols MC gang in Christchurch led to significant tension in the city’s criminal underworld. Herald senior crime reporter Sam Sherwood reports on how a series of incidents including a drive-by shooting at the gang’s headquarters led to police finding a cache of firearms, drugs and cash.

Riding through Christchurch on his Harley Davidson, Jason Ross was spotted by police wearing a Mongols Moscow t-shirt with 1 per cent printed on its sleeve.

It was early December 2019. Earlier that year Ross was either “expelled or de-patched” from the Hells Angels’ Quake City chapter where he was boss following “internal conflict”.

Since then, he’d taken the mantle of president of the Mongols MC chapter in Christchurch after notorious 501 deportee Jim “JD Thacker” started the first Mongols chapter in the country.

About a month after he was spotted on his motorbike police saw Ross again, this time wearing a brand-new full Mongols leather patch, marked by their distinctive symbol of Genghis Khan, in Christchurch.

Jason Ross, the South Island boss of the Mongols MC gang, pleaded guilty to 15 charges on Friday.

Police soon started seeing more people wearing fully-patched Mongols clothing, a sign the gang was making a presence in the Garden City. About 40 other Christchurch-based Hells Angels were believed to have jumped ship with the gang basing themselves out of an old sawmill in Burnham.

The arrival of the Mongols in Christchurch caused significant tensions in the city’s underworld including a barbershop, with only tenuous links to Ross, being gutted after a firebombing.

About a month later the Burnham gang-pad was shot at in a drive-by shooting.

Concerned about the escalating violence, police raided the Mongols’ pad days later where they found a stash of firearms, methamphetamine, and cash.

On Thursday, Ross and one other member, Brendan Gallagher the sergeant in arms, pled guilty to several charges as a result of the investigation.

With their guilty pleas, the Herald can reveal the sophisticated layout of the pad with firearms, cash and methamphetamine hidden throughout.

The headquarters is located within a large rural property adjacent to State Highway 1 between Rolleston and Burnham on Main South Rd.

Operation Khan

In the early hours of February 23, 2020, a dark-coloured SUV driving south on State Highway 1 fired a number of bullets into the living areas of the main building at the pad.

As a result, the gang reinforced the main building and began erecting a fence at the front of the main building.

Four days after the drive-by shooting, police arrived at the gang’s pad.

The headquarters is located within a large rural property adjacent to State Highway 1 between Rolleston and Burnham on Main South Rd.

The property is floodlit with large-wattage floodlights and security cameras located on the main building and is fortified with barbed wire around the property.

Ross was in the main building with his partner, two patched members, and an associate. Gallagher was located in a sleepout.

A patched member of the Mongols was found in a caravan along with his partner and daughter. A shotgun and a .22 rifle were found hidden under the mattress inside.

Inside the garage of the large shed police found four green plastic bags containing methamphetamine hidden in the rafters. The bags were concealed behind wood and about three metres above the ground, accessible by a mezzanine floor.

Ross had approached the lessor of the property, shortly before February 27, in regards to leasing the garage at the property for $60 a week.

Several guns were found in a hidden compartment behind some wall lining.

The wholesale value of the methamphetamine was about $20,000 with a street value of about $91,000.

The methamphetamine had been supplied to Ross through the Mongol network. On several occasions, Ross received kilograms of methamphetamine from members of the gang in the North Island. It would then be distributed further through the Mongols MC network in the South Island and sold to consumers.

Located throughout the garage, which was set up like an office, were envelopes of cash and a tin filled with cash and coins. Nearly $20,000 worth of cash was found, made up of mainly $100, $50 and $20 notes.

Inside Ross’ room police found a stun gun in a set of drawers. Under the bottom drawer of a set of drawers in his room was an M4 magazine with 11 .223 rounds and 12 gauge shotgun shells wrapped in bubble wrap.

A large-screen television in this bedroom displayed security footage from the property’s cameras.

In the top drawer of a dresser, next to his wallet, was a small quantity of methamphetamine and four tabs of 25C-NBOMe, a class B controlled drug.

On the floor under the drawer of a dresser in Ross’ room were also two boxes of 9mm rounds. A box of 9mm rounds and loose 9mm rounds were also found.

The Mongols pad was shot at in a drive-by shooting days before the raid.

Just outside Ross’ bedroom in the hallway was a manhole in the hot water cupboard giving access to the ceiling cavity. A ladder to access the manhole was leaning against a nearby wall.

Located near the manhole entry in the ceiling was a loaded 9mm Glock pistol with a magazine, with two plastic boxes containing more than 100 rounds of .22 ammunition. An extra Glock magazine was found in Ross’ bedroom.

Police also found seven bundles of cash in his room worth $34,000.

In a room off the bar area, police found a “hidden compartment” behind the wall lining. The structure of the wall had been altered to accommodate the firearms.

Inside was a shotgun, .22 rifle, two modified shotguns, and a 9mm Military Style Semi-Automatic (MSSA).

The 9mm MSSA was fitted with an “aimpoint” red dot sight. The summary of facts says a sight is used for hunting, law enforcement and military use.

On the floor of the garage in the main headquarters was a cardboard box containing thunder flashes. Thunder flashes are explosive pyrotechnic devices designed to simulate grenades.

Inside the main recreation area at the gang's pad.

Inside Gallagher’s bedroom was a statue. Hidden inside the base was a plastic bag with bags of MDMA taped with black insulation tape. Taped with the MDMA were another 15 new point bags.

In his sleepout were two rounds of .22 calibre ammunition and an ammunition belt holding rounds of .22 calibre ammunition. Outside the sleepout and buried near the fence were seven rounds of ammunition. Outside the sleepout, buried near the fence, were rounds of Super X .22 ammunition.

Police also searched a Mercedez Benz on the property. In the rear of the car was a large green case with a loaded Sterling Model .22 rifle with a magazine containing .22 rounds and a small amount of detonator cord.

In the lounge, police found a pair of New Zealand police-issued handcuffs in a police-issued pouch in a cabinet in the lounge.

Inside a caravan, where a patched member had been living, was a Marlin 12 gauge shotgun and a Lithgow .22 calibre LR rifle hidden under a mattress.

When spoken to by police the patched member admitted having a Mongols MC tattoo on the side of his neck. The tattoo is a 1% diamond shape with “MFFM” (Mongols Forever Forever Mongols).

In explanation for the firearms in his caravan, he said they were from a deceased estate and believed they were safer in the caravan than at his home in Rangiora.

Ross and Gallagher declined to comment.

On Thursday, Ross pleaded guilty to 15 charges including unlawfully possessing restricted weapons, firearms, and explosives, as well as possessing a class B controlled drug and failing to carry out obligations in relation to a computer search.

Gallagher pleaded guilty to eight charges including possession of MDMA, unlawfully possessing a pistol, unlawfully possessing an explosive and failure to carry out obligations in relation to a computer search.

A third person remains before the court.

Police found firearms stashed throughout the property.

Ross is already behind bars after he was sentenced following a covert investigation into the Mongols, dubbed Operation Silk.

The jury in the trial in 2022 trial took five days to find eight members of the gang, including Thacker, Mongols national vice-president Hone “H1″ Ronaki, Leon “Wolf” Huritu, Kelly “Rhino” Petrowski, Matthew Ramsden, dubbed the meth “washer” and processor, 24-year-old patched member Kane Ronaki and another member only known as Silver guilty on a host of charges.

Ross was found guilty of four charges, including possession of meth for supply, thanks in large part to the testimony of former drug courier turned secret Crown witness Wheel Man.

At sentencing Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett said Ross was instrumental in the supply and distribution of drugs around the South Island as well as the establishment of the Christchurch gang pad.

The clubhouse, on a 2ha rural sectio, is surrounded by a 2m-high perimeter iron fence and locked gates. Closed-circuit television cameras are installed at various points and high levels of security are evident.

“That was one of the aims of this newly established gang,” Pollet said.

“It was a high-risk operation and nothing less than kilograms would suffice.”

Ross’ lawyer, Thomas Harre, asked for discounts for his client’s prospect of rehabilitation, previous clean criminal history, upbringing and clear trajectory into gangs, given his father had also been a Mongols gang member.

Justice Melanie Harland, however, said the prospect of stacks of cash was his sole motivator.

“There’s no evidence that anything but financial profit drove your offending,” the judge said in sending Ross to a lengthy stint behind bars.

“You were not simply a prospect [of the gang] ... but the president.”

Sam Sherwood is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers crime. He is a senior journalist who joined the Herald in 2022 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.