A Mongrel Mob member who kidnapped and terrorised three Gisborne teenagers after they stumbled on a gang marijuana plot was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment yesterday.
When the teenagers discovered the plot they took one of the plants. But on a return visit they were caught by Mongrel Mob members guarding the drugs.
Reweti Kahaki, aged 24, appeared for sentence in the High Court at Auckland yesterday. He had been found guilty in Gisborne of three charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, three charges of kidnapping and one charge of cultivating cannabis.
After being chased and caught, two of the youths were held by gang members, including Kahaki, while the third was sent away to retrieve the missing plant.
Justice Robert Fisher said the three were terrorised for more than two hours, during which one suffered deep cuts to his skull and back, another a deep puncture wound to his back and the third youth, concussion, a broken nose, bruising and cuts.
Three days later, Kahaki was guarding the plot with a loaded rifle when police arrived.
The plot contained 113 mature plants worth more than $100,000.
Justice Fisher said the boys had been subjected to extreme violence in the knife attacks in a calculated move by the gang to self-police its commercial drugs operation.
He said he could see no mitigating factors on the part of Kahaki, who had a criminal record containing six previous convictions for violence and two terms of imprisonment.
Kahaki was sentenced to six years in prison on the wounding and kidnapping charges and three years, to be served cumulatively, for the cultivating-cannabis charge.
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