Police allege Auckland man who bought 18 guns and 2500 rounds of ammunition was a ‘straw buyer’ for gang and other criminals

Two of the firearms purchased by the 'straw buyer' allegedly ended up in the possession of a senior member of the King Cobras gang in Auckland. Photo / File

An Auckland man with a clean criminal record has been charged with supplying guns to a gang member, as a specialist police squad continues to target “straw buyers” for the criminal underworld.

The licensed firearms owner legally bought 18 firearms, including shotguns and semi-automatic .22 rifles, as well as more than 2500 rounds of ammunition over four months this year.

But when detectives from the Firearms Investigation Team raided his One Tree Hill home last month, none of the guns were still in his possession.

Police allege the 30-year builder did not buy the firearms or ammunition for his own use but on behalf of criminals who cannot buy them legally because they don’t have a firearms licence.

This is known as retail diversion, or acting as a “straw buyer”, which is where licensed firearms owners (before the introduction of the national registry in June) were able to buy as many guns as they wanted without having to register them individually.

They were then able to on-sell the guns to gang members and other criminals, who use them for protection, intimidation or armed conflict, which has led to murders.

Court documents show two of the firearms allegedly bought by the “straw buyer”, a Rossi .22 rifle and a Tippman M4-22 rifle, were found at the home of a patched King Cobra gang member.

The Rossi .22 rifle had been “cut down” – the barrel and the stock shortened – leading to the “straw buyer” also being charged with the alleged illegal manufacture of a pistol.

He was also charged with the possession of 13 high-capacity magazines, which were banned after the Christchurch terrorist attack, and a small amount of methamphetamine.

The man appeared in the Auckland District Court last week, where he was remanded in custody and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The prosecution is the latest in an ongoing crackdown on alleged “straw buyers”, which police now believe is the most common way for legal firearms to end up on the black market.

For many years, the police had believed most firearms in criminal hands were stolen from legitimate gun owners.

This point frustrated some in the firearms community, who said there was little data to back up the claim and instead believed that organised crime groups smuggled guns from overseas.

But analysis of four years’ worth of retail records – about 250,000 sales – by the recently established Firearms Investigations Team revealed that “straw buyers” were a much bigger problem than first thought.

Previously under the Arms Act, retailers had to keep records of gun sales but owners wanting to sell firearms privately did not.

The only legal obligation on sellers was to look at the prospective buyer’s firearms licence. There was no requirement to check whether the licence was valid, or even keep a record of the buyer’s details.

The loophole, which has now closed in a law change that came into force with a national firearms register in June, made it easy for guns to end up in criminal hands.

“It’s very, very simple,” Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Beal told the Herald on Sunday in a previous interview.

The officer in charge of the National Organised Crime Group specialist firearms squad said the bulk of guns recovered by police could be traced back to a legitimate retail sale – rather than being stolen or smuggled – which had been diverted to unlicensed individuals.

“There’s a lot of rumours around where gangs get their guns from: importing them in bulk by sea, manufacturing them, burglaries and so on,” said Beal.

“But the vast majority of what we’re seeing so far [appears to be] retail diversion. The criminal element doesn’t need to look any further, importing etc, because diversion is such a simple option.”

Operation Carbine is another recent example of organised retail diversion.

As a former member of the Hells Angels with a serious criminal history, Kishor Chandra Singh did not have a licence to own firearms.

But he enlisted the help of three men in Hawke’s Bay to legally buy 21 Alfa Carbine rifles, as well as ammunition, from the Gun City store in Napier.

On top of the retail cost of $47,000 for the guns and ammunition, Singh paid the “straw buyers” $500 for each Alfa Carbine bought on his behalf.

He then sold those firearms to members of the Mongrel Mob.

Some of the guns were also delivered to Auckland during the gang war between the Killer Beez and the Tribesmen last year.

Two of the Alfa Carbine rifles cut down to pistols were found in the possession of Kishor Chandra Singh during Operation Carbine in 2022.

With the “straw buyer” pipeline likely to be squeezed by the introduction of a national firearms register, another five years will pass before every licensed gun owner is required to list their firearms.

But police expect organised crime will explore other avenues to find firepower.

That could lead to smuggling by sea, or manufacture (either by 3D printers or assembly of imported parts), targeted burglaries of gun owners or “smash-and-grab” ram raids on dealers.

The stricter regulations and focus on the illegal supply of firearms will take time to bear fruit.

As well as the firepower already in the black market, an unknown number of “grey market” firearms are in New Zealand.

These are firearms bought by gun licence holders, which were then banned after the Aramoana massacre and the Christchurch terror attack, but not handed over during the government buy-back period.

No one knows how many exist but gun lobby groups have estimated there could be hundreds of thousands, which could then enter the black market.

Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.