A loaded military-style shotgun was stashed under a couch - within easy reach of a young boy playing in the lounge - by a senior member of the Mongols gang who had been on the run for a year.
Armed officers found the illegal semi-automatic weapon after finally tracking down Brodie Collins-Haskins to a rural South Island property in May 2021, where he was arrested on serious drugs and firearms offences.
The 26-year-old had managed to get far away from Auckland, where he controlled a methamphetamine stockpile for the outlaw motorcycle club, and had also grown a scruffy beard with long, unkempt hair to disguise himself.
But ultimately, Collins-Haskins was unable to distance himself from the evidence gathered in two separate covert investigations, as police tried to halt the growth of the gang exported from Australia.
The final chapter played out in the Auckland District Court this month after Collins-Haskins pleaded guilty to participating in an organised criminal group, as well as numerous drug supply and firearms charges.
Described as the “orchestrating influence” within the Mongols in Auckland, Collins-Haskins was the main target of a covert investigation called Operation Nest Egg.
Members of the suspected drug syndicate used Ciphr phones to communicate with one another, as police cannot intercept messages or phone calls from the dedicated encrypted devices.
However, the police were able to bug a Toyota Corolla used by Collins-Haskins and his Mongol lieutenants to deliver packages of meth around the country.
The listening device allowed detectives to listen to numerous incriminating conversations in which the Mongols discussed the exchange of kilograms of methamphetamine for large sums of cash.
Surveillance of the Toyota Corolla also led detectives to a “safe house” in the West Auckland suburb of Massey in May 2020, despite the Mongols’ best efforts to avoid being followed there.
Bolted to the garage floor was a locked box which contained all the tools of a drug dealer: 269 grams of meth, electronic scales, $209,000 cash, six firearms, ammunition, loaded magazines, scopes, a shrink-wrap machine, a money-counting device and a “bug” detector.
Collins-Haskins went on the run until he was found 12 months later, along with the loaded semi-automatic shotgun stashed under the couch. A 6-year-old boy was sitting on the couch watching television.
The senior Mongol eventually pleaded guilty to 14 charges which, along with a discount for his troubled upbringing, reduced his final sentence to seven years and eight months in prison.
However, the Herald can now reveal that Collins-Haskins was already serving a long prison sentence for drugs and firearms offences.
He was also targeted in a parallel investigation targeting the Mongols, Operation Silk, which targeted the newly established gang’s hierarchy.
Originally formed in the United States in the late 1960s, the first New Zealand chapter of the Mongols was established in the Bay of Plenty in the middle of 2019.
There were also a handful of patched members in Auckland, Hastings and Christchurch. The gang’s New Zealand president, Jim David Thacker, better known as JD, was deported from Australia five years earlier, after a biker brawl on the Gold Coast in 2013.
His brash leadership style soon led the Mongols into conflict with other gangs, including the Mongrel Mob and the Greazy Dogs, in turf wars to control the drug market.
Nicknamed “Silver”, Collins-Haskins was put in charge of the gang’s meth stockpile in Auckland.
Thacker instructed Mongol associates to meet “Silver” in clandestine locations around Auckland, often in carparks, to pick up parcels of drugs. The illicit packages were then delivered around the country as far south as Christchurch, in exchange for cash, which was returned to Thacker.
One of these Mongol associates gave evidence against Thacker and the rest of the Mongols at a High Court trial in 2022, which led to long prison sentences for the entire gang hierarchy.
Collins-Haskins was sentenced to 14 years and nine months in prison for Operation Silk, which was a factor Judge Pippa Sinclair had to take into account when sentencing for Operation Nest Egg.
Instead of imposing a new sentence of seven years and nine months, the judge added two years to the Operation Silk result - a total of 16 years and nine months in prison.
Collins-Haskins will serve a minimum of 40 per cent, or six years and nine months, before he can apply for parole.
On his eventual release from prison, he will be deported back home to Australia.
His lieutenants in the Operation Nest Egg syndicate were Cruze Tamatea and Charliedene Taueki, who delivered two 1kg parcels of meth to customers on his orders.
Tamatea was sentenced to six years in prison, while Taueki had an existing prison lag extended by two years and three months.
The Herald can now reveal that Taueki, 33, was one of four gang members who broke into the home of a retired couple and threatened them at gunpoint.
The husband and wife, in their mid-60s, were woken by the sound of the front door of their Mount Maunganui home being smashed with a sledgehammer around 4am in July 2018.
At least four men, dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, pointed firearms and threatened to kill the couple - and their dog - unless they handed over drugs and cash.
“We’re 65 years old, do we really look like we do drugs?” the wife told the masked men, according to her evidence in court, before adding: “And then I said: ‘And who uses cash nowadays anyway?’”
They had targeted the wrong house. The pensioners suspected their neighbours were drug dealers, but kept quiet for fear of what might happen to the young children who lived there.
The home invasion was a terrifying example of innocent people caught in the often invisible practice of “taxing” in the criminal underworld.
“Taxing” is when criminals extort cash, drugs or valuables from other criminals through fear of violence or intimidation.
The standover tactics are rarely reported to police, as the victims fear further retribution or exposing their own criminal behaviour.
William Matiu Court-Clausen and Junior Moke, members of the Comancheros gang, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and were sentenced to seven years six months and six years two months, respectively.
Two of their co-accused denied the charges but were found guilty of aggravated robbery and burglary at a second trial in January 2021. Their first trial ended with a hung jury.
Maninoa Vincent Felise, also a Comanchero, was handed a prison term of seven years and eight months.
The fourth defendant, who could not be named until now for legal reasons, was Charliedene Taueki.
The patched Mongol was sentenced to eight years and two months for the home invasion, which was extended by Judge Sinclair to 10 years and four months because of the drugs and firearms charges from Operation Nest Egg.
The home invasion highlighted the close links between members of the Comancheros and Mongols.
Both motorcycle gangs formed chapters in New Zealand in recent years after senior members were deported from Australia.
Although these gang members comprise a relatively small proportion of the thousands of so-called “501s” deportees, these new gangs have a disproportionate influence on the New Zealand criminal landscape because of their international connections, sophisticated counter-surveillance tactics, and aggressive use of firearms.
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.
Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers social issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.