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Police will have greater powers to spy on organised criminals and seize their ill-gotten assets under new laws coming into force to combat the profitable methamphetamine trade.
The Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was passed by Parliament in April and the Gangs and Organised Crime Bill is likely to become law after being considered by the law and order select committee.
At present, suspected methamphetamine suppliers have to be convicted before their assets can be forfeited. Then Crown prosecutors have to prove the connection between the offending and the asset before the property, cash or cars are seized.
But from December, the Crown will simply need to prove on the "balance of probabilities" that a person has profited from criminal offending.
Simon Moore, SC, the Auckland Crown Solicitor, believes the new law will make a significant difference in combating the criminal underworld.
"If you found a huge wad of cash in the boot of someone's car it wasn't going to be terribly difficult," said Mr Moore. "But proving [offending against] someone with no obvious sources of income building a multi-million-dollar property in West Auckland is difficult, particularly if they haven't been convicted of a crime."
Mr Moore said the new law would allow the Crown to demand proof that the asset was not funded by criminal activity, in much the same way as the Inland Revenue Department worked.
"Putting assets in trusts and moving them around the place is just not going to work any more. [Al Capone] was never successfully prosecuted until the [United States Internal Revenue Service] attacked him."
A good example of how the law now works is the so-called SkyCity case. Zhong Wei, 26, was this month sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for his key role in a multimillion-dollar P ring that used the casino's VIP lounge as an office.
The Crown is seeking to keep $550,000 cash found in a safety deposit box, among other assets owned by Wei and co-offenders. The stacks of $100 bills are believed to be just a fraction of the profits made by the Asian crime syndicate busted in Operation Manu.
It is understood that Wei will oppose the forfeiture and claims the cash is legitimate.
The Gangs and Organised Crime Bill broadens the criteria under which police can bug conversations, clarifies the charge of participating in an organised criminal group and doubles the maximum sentence for this offence to 10 years.
According to the submission of the Police Association, the most significant potential effect of the bill is the improved ability to intercept electronic communications of gang members.
At present, police must prove that someone is a gang member before phones can be bugged. Under the proposed law, police would need only "reasonable grounds" to believe someone is a gang member to obtain a surveillance warrant.
Police Association president Greg O'Connor wrote that interception evidence is a powerful tool in obtaining a conviction, but surveillance operations are "resource intensive" and resources are limited.
"As such, without a considerable boost to electronic interception and surveillance capacity in police, pro-active policing of organised crime is unlikely to increase significantly despite the changes [in] the bill."
Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Cahill, head of Auckland drug investigations, said organised crime inquiries were lengthy and electronic monitoring was expensive.
"Some of these gangs are extremely well-organised and entrenched. Targeting high-end manufacturers and distributors requires a long-term commitment. That can be [hard] with the day-to-day requirements of policing."
