Operation Silk: Mongols vice president Hone Ronaki jailed for 16 years

Hone Ronaki, 46, vice president of the Mongols gang in the High Court at Hamilton today for sentencing in relation to 107 charges relating to Operation Silk. Photo / Belinda Feek

A High Court judge was struck by the number of young members of his own whānau a man drew into a new gang he helped set up.

That gang was the Mongols and vice president Hone Ronaki sought fresh blood for the gang from those he knew.

Justice Melanie Harland told Ronaki in the High Court at Hamilton today it was a “tragedy” how many of them were related to him.

“I cannot escape the conclusion that through you, many of the young members of your whānau were enlisted to become part of the Mongols’ unlawful and damaging drug distribution business.”

The 46-year-old was in court to be sentenced on 107 charges after a Hamilton jury last year found him guilty of 26 charges. He had earlier pleaded guilty to 81 charges and was acquitted of 14.

Due to his criminal behaviour in Australia, Ronaki was deported in October 2018 and just three months later he became president of the Bandidos North Island chapter. A dispute later saw him, Jim ‘JD’ Thacker and others “depatched”.

They then went on to set up the Mongols with Thacker taking on the president role.

The Mongols is an international gang originally set up in the United States in 1969 and dubbed a ‘1 per cent club’; meaning that 99 per cent of motorcycle clubs were law-abiding, whereas 1 per cent were “outlaws”.

While the Mongols dealt with Class A, B, and C drugs across the country, Ronaki’s focus was methamphetamine, which was partly to fulfil his own addiction, along with cannabis.

Ronaki’s charges mostly revolved around drugs, cannabis, and methamphetamine, and the possession, supply, offer, or conspiring to supply P, along with firearms charges, including discharge of a firearm with reckless disregard in relation to shootings at Haukore St, Tauranga, and No 2 Rd, Te Puke and two of money laundering relating to $98,000.

‘Gang drained police resources as they grappled with violence’

Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett highlighted the significance of Ronaki and Thacker setting up the Mongols in New Zealand and the impact it had, primarily, on the Bay of Plenty community.

It significantly drained policing resources in the region as they attempted to, and ultimately, put a stop to the “significant violence” and “destruction” caused by the Mongols as they clashed with other gangs.

She said it was pure luck that nobody was killed during the shooting of a Haukore St house which was linked to the family of a senior Mongrel Mob member.

Ronaki admitted being one of the few that fired shots from the weapons - including an AK47 and AR15 - that saw bullets go straight through the walls of the house, narrowly missing the occupants inside, and smothering a vehicle parked in the driveway.

A car left pelted with bullet holes parked at a Haukore St, Tauranga Mongrel Mob home, by members of the Mongols gang. Photo / Sandra Conchie

“The fact that no one was injured, even fatally, in that shooting at Haukore St is nothing sort of a miracle.

“The 96 rounds that went through that property alone where [woman] had just retired to bed and her nephew was on that couch and went through the wall to her bedroom and just missed her head, so too her partner who was standing in the kitchen. Such is the power of these weapons.”

‘He never had a bed ... a highlight was running water’

Ronaki’s counsel Andrew Schulze took exception to Pollett’s submissions and was quick to highlight that it was just his client up for sentencing, not the whole gang.

“You are not sentencing the Mongols per se, you are sentencing him.

“It’s acknowledged he’s a senior office holder ... but it’s sentencing on things that did happen not what didn’t happen ... it’s on proven facts.”

He pushed for his client to be sentenced in relation to six to 10kg of meth, not the 23.3kg as submitted by the Crown, and suggested an end jail term of up to 15 years and nine months.

Ronaki’s cultural report “painted a picture that we as a society find shocking but for many is a reality”.

For Ronaki, his journey began at birth after becoming dislocated from family, and still had no idea who they were.

Those who did bring him up did their best but he was surrounded by, and subjected to, violence and poverty.

“He never had a bed,” Schulze said bluntly. “He lived in motor vehicles, vans, and buses.”

“The best that he had was running water. That was the highlight.”

So, he said, it’s no surprise that he’s ended up in court today given his father was a member of the Filthy Few and Mongrel Mob when he was younger.

He urged Justice Harland to acknowledge that upbringing with a discount of 20 per cent, along with a further 10 per cent for the many guilty pleas.

16.58kg of P, 2kg of cannabis

Justice Harland said the firearms were “inextricably linked” to protecting the gang’s drug dealing business.

She said the risk to life from both shootings was “very real and I consider it very fortunate that no one, including you, was harmed”.

The amount of drugs involved in his offending was important in deciding a jail term, but so was his role in the gang.

Justice Harland determined he dealt, or possessed, a total of 16.58kg of meth and 2kg of cannabis and found he was at the “lower end” of a leading role in the offending, landing on a starting point of 23 years in jail.

After agreeing to hand down discounts totalling 30 per cent, Ronaki was jailed for 16 years.

However, she also issued a minimum term of imprisonment of 40 per cent, or six years and five months.

Belinda Feek has been a reporter for 19 years, and at the Herald for eight years, joining the Open Justice team in 2022.