Head Hunters gang member Daniel Natua sentenced for gun cache, violent Auckland home invasion

A violent Auckland home invasion in which three flatmates were terrorised by gangsters who warned them not to call the police backfired in a major way for Head Hunters member Daniel Atuia Natua, who lost his patch, cash and a significant gun cache two months later when his own home was raided by officers executing a search warrant.

The 32-year-old Te Atatū resident has now been ordered to serve six years and six months in prison, after pleading guilty to a slew of the 20 charges that followed the investigation.

Police boasted at the time of Natua’s July 2022 arrest that the seizures were another win in Operation Cobalt, the then recently launched nationwide crackdown intended to stem the surge in gang warfare. A photo of Natua’s patch and seized contraband was widely circulated in a media release.

But Natua was not at the time identified by name and until his recent sentencing hearing in the Auckland District Court, most details of the investigation that led to the search had been kept under wraps.

Guns, cash and drugs belonging to Head Hunters member Daniel Natua were discovered as police executed a search warrant at his Te Atatū home in July 2022. He has now been sentenced for the contraband and for a violent home invasion that led to the raid.

According to authorities, three flatmates were at their Richardson Rd home in Sandringham around 10.20pm on a Thursday in May 2022 when Natua and a still-unidentified associate burst in through the unlocked front door.

Neither of them had been invited. The complainants told police they were strangers.

“Mr Natua and his associate started threatening [the first victim], telling him they were ‘gangsters’ so not to call police or they would come back,” court documents state. “Mr Natua and his associate approached [the victim] and punched him to the left side of his head, knocking him to the ground.

“Mr Natua and his associate punched [him] a further four or five times while still on the ground before kneeing him in the nose.”

The attack resulted in several fractures to the victim’s face.

Natua then demanded the keys to a Jeep parked in the driveway, but the first victim said the vehicle wasn’t his. Natua and the unknown associate left the home with the Jeep keys after forcing the first victim to wake his flatmate, who owned the vehicle.

A third flatmate was targeted a short time later, when Natua and his associate decided they wanted to exchange the Jeep for an Audi belonging to that flatmate, which was also parked in the driveway.

“Mr Natua and his associate proceeded to [the third victim’s] bedroom door, which was locked,” according to the agreed summary of facts for Natua’s case. “Mr Natua and his associate kicked the door open with such force it broke the frame around the lock.”

The Audi keys were then “surrendered without resistance”. The duo returned the Jeep keys before driving off in the Audi, which police found abandoned two days later in Māngere Bridge with the registration plates removed.

Head Hunters member Daniel Natua is sentenced in the Auckland District Court after police investigating a violent home invasion in Sandringham discovered a large cache of guns, drugs and cash at his Te Atatū home. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

After pleading guilty to the aggravated robbery charge in October, Natua claimed he targeted the home because one of the residents had been harassing his wife to the point where she feared for her safety. But Judge June Jelas declined to consider the excuse when determining his sentence. There was “nothing about the circumstances to support that was the purpose for it”, she explained.

While the aggravated robbery charge was the most serious, carrying a maximum possible sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment, the bulk of Natua’s charges resulted from the police raid on his Te Atatū home just under two months later.

During the search of his bedroom, investigators found plastic baggies, scales and an invoice book in a cupboard, as well as a black cooler bag at the foot of his bed containing more than 200 rounds of ammunition in various sizes.

Under his bed were two semi-automatic rifles. Both guns, along with the attached magazines, were banned in New Zealand after the Christchurch terrorist attacks. A bolt-action rifle was also found under the bed – a firearm that is allowed for permit holders, which Natua was not.

Investigators also seized 12 small baggies containing 28 grams of cocaine, a separate bag with 32g of cannabis, a stolen Mercedes Benz found in his driveway and $6800 in cash discovered under the passenger seat of a vehicle that was registered to him.

‘No longer a risk’

Within days of his arrest, Natua was allowed into the Nga Kete Wananga Solutions drug rehabilitation facility, staying there until his graduation from the programme over a year later and helping to support newer arrivals. As a result, defence lawyer Shannon Withers argued recently, the father of five has transformed into a person who is no longer a risk to the community.

“This gentleman’s evolution on bail – it would have been easy for him to give up, but he’s come through as a stronger person,” Withers told the judge.

While considering what sentence to impose, Judge Jelas acknowledged Natua’s rehabilitation efforts, as well as his letter of apology to the victims.

“You regret the pain and suffering that was inflicted on your victims, but also your family and friends,” she said.

At the time of the home invasion, Natua had been going through relationship difficulties with his wife and his mother was dying, a combination of misfortune that resulted in his using drugs to deal with his emotions, the judge also noted.

She referred to the defendant’s “limited” criminal history and his insistence that the guns found at his home hadn’t been “sourced from gangs”.

But the judge ultimately agreed with Crown prosecutor Pearl Philpott that the starting point for the aggravated robbery charge should be seven years rather than the five to six years suggested by the defence.

“The explanation you provided to the court... is consistent with a pre-meditated and planned offence,” the judge explained. “There was serious violence inflicted by you and your associate on the victim.”

Judge Jelas then increased the sentence to 10 years to account for all the other charges, before allowing reductions of three and a half years, based on Natua’s rough upbringing, his guilty pleas, the rehabilitation efforts he has made, the impact his prison sentence will have on his children and the 452 days he spent under 24-hour curfew while awaiting trial.

“This was essentially a household living in fear of your father’s anger and violence,” the judge said of his background. “Poverty was a constant feature.”

The gallery was full of supporters for the sentencing hearing, including many people Natua had met while at Nga Kete. Some of those in attendance hurled abuse at security as he was led away, incensed that the defendant wasn’t allowed to linger in the courtroom a bit longer to say goodbye to his youngest son, who was born after the 2022 arrest.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the United States and New Zealand.