No trouble after P dealer deadline hits in Ngaruawahia

The Waikato mayor has accused the Tribal Huk gang leader of "grandstanding" over his ultimatum to drug dealers.

The streets remained quiet in Ngaruawahia last night after the deadline for P dealers to leave town expired.

Tribal Huk leader Jamie Pink on Thursday gave meth dealers in its Waikato town 24 hours to leave - and they say they'll only ask nicely the first time.

Pink said the deadline ended at 6.30pm on Friday and after asking once, visits would begin to those who hadn't gone.

Waikato District Mayor Allan Sanson said "absolutely nothing happened as predicted". He celebrated a successful end to his campaign at the Ngaruawahia RSA and found town to be very quiet when he left.

"In reality I always felt nothing was going to happen but you can never be sure of course.

"Jamie was grandstanding a little bit."

Sanson said he had never laid eyes on Pink until the community meeting on Thursday, but admitted he had heard of him for his "colourful reputation".

A police spokeswoman said they've had no calls regarding action taken by the Tribal Huks.

"We're not aware of anything overnight in relation to that."

Ngaruawahia Ward councillor Janet Gibb had not heard of any trouble going down.

"I think everything was just as normal.

"Police will have it under control, they'll be watching."

Originally, formed in the 1970s, the Huks were formed to protect themselves and the township from larger street gangs such as the Head Hunters and Mongrel Mob, which occasionally made trouble in either of the town's two pubs.

A former member of the gang, who did not want to be named, said the Huks were named after an anti-Japanese movement.

The Hukbalahap started in 1942 during the Japanese occupation of Philippines, eventually mustering an army against the Japanese forces in Central Luzon. The Huk Resistance, as it became popularly known, used guerrilla warfare to establish strongholds in villages, providing protection for locals and enforcing their own form of justice.

"Originally, they were called the Huks, the Tribal Huks came about only about 10 years ago and they are the next generation. Some of them will be sons and nephews of the original Huks. From the beginning, you had to be from Ngaruawahia to join.

"It really started after there was huge brawl in the street between locals and the Head Hunters who were passing through. It happened outside the Delta Tavern. After that, it was decided some of them needed to get organised. From then on, if there was a fight at one of the pubs, all the Huks and their whanau would go down there and establish order. They would all be there the next night. The Huks brought people from both sides of the [Waikato] river together."

The former member, who left in the 1980s after being told to choose between the group and his family, said some of the original Huks tattooed their children with the gang patch. "I continued to watch their backs and they continued to watch mine.

"It all sort of died down for a while until the Tribal Huks came about around 2005. It's made up of the younger ones now but the older ones still command respect, a lot of them are their own children or whanau, but there's a lot more of the Tribal Huks than there were of the Huks at any one time.

"Like all gangs, they have some idiots but they have done a lot of good for the community. Some of the Huks have never been in trouble with the law.

"Overall, there's been good and bad but overall I think the town has been better for it. If they hadn't started up, there would be one of the other big gangs in the town and Ngaruawahia would have lost a lot of their youth to other gangs."

Pink has been the leader for the past decade.

He first hit the headlines in 2007 after his daughter was approached and offered P.

Armed with a sledgehammer, he and his members smashed up the dealer's pad, kicking the dealers out of town.

They are now, and have been for a while, the only gang in Ngaruawahia.

Since his run-in with the law, Pink has vowed to put the community first.

The Huks, who are based on 20ha of farmland on the outskirts of the town, are now most notable for their work making sandwiches for schoolchildren - up to 1000 a day for up to 40 schools on their roster, which stretches into Hamilton.

A charity, Kai 4 the Future Foundation, has also been set up with community leaders on board as signatories to the foundation's accounts.

But it hasn't been smooth sailing for Pink, who also hit the headlines late last year after being found with cannabis. He was convicted in the Hamilton District Court and apologised for his actions.

And he's back in the limelight again after telling a community meeting last night that after conducting his own personal survey of kids in the town about P, 75 per cent of them were users.

He says that's why he took the opportunity to stand up and lay down the ultimatum. At 6.30pm today, he said, they will begin to make their "visits".