David Fisher: High-profile cars a giveaway for usually smart gang

A Maserati Gransport.

If there is a Business Roundtable of crime in New Zealand, the Head Hunters are it.

They have been a fixture on the criminal scene since they were teenagers in the 1960s in Glen Innes.

A Ferrari Modena.

As they got older, they got smarter. New members were rarely admitted. By the time the methamphetamine trade took off, there were still no more than 20 central, patched members. As their fortunes grew, their profile did not. They became controlled in their behaviour - and disciplined.

They devised strategy, controlled the "cooks" and offered franchises and finance to those who wanted a piece of the action.

A Porche Boxster.

Their headquarters in Ellerslie became home to organised "Fight Club" events, run through a charitable trust. It attracted society types, including All Blacks.

The police made inroads a decade ago but struggled with the size and scale of the methamphetamine industry. Then Auckland's organised crime specialists were folded into the Wellington-run Organised & Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand.

The arrests yesterday will be celebrated by police and met with frustration by the Head Hunters.

The police will celebrate a return to a battleground where their specialists in Auckland's domestic organised crime have been let loose to practise their trade. And the Head Hunters will be wondering what possessed one of their older and wiser members to be associated with such expensive and high-profile cars.

Unlike the other Business Roundtable, being seen with a Ferrari, Maserati or Porsche is an invitation to trouble.