Firearms and ammunition purchased by straw buyers supplied to Head Hunters, Black Power and Rebels gangs

The Beretta semi-automatic rifle [inset] found in the possession of the Head Hunters gang was one of 15 firearms legally purchased by a "straw buyer" over 18 months and supplied on the black market. Photo / Brett Phibbs, composite image

A semi-automatic rifle suspected of being fired in an Auckland gang shooting was traced back to a licenced gun owner who legally purchased the gun four years earlier.

The Beretta CX4 Storm found in the possession of a Head Hunter in February 2022, just days after a shooting involving a rival gang, was one of 15 firearms purchased by the firearms licence holder over an 18-month period starting in 2017.

He then illegally sold the guns to criminal associates who didn’t have licences.

As well as the semi-automatic Beretta – later banned completely after the Christchurch terrorist attacks – one of the 10 shotguns the 37-year-old bought was later discovered in the possession of a Black Power prospect.

The licence holder has now pleaded guilty to a representative charge of unlawful possession of firearms and will be sentenced in August.

In a separate investigation, another licensed gun owner has recently admitted illegally supplying ammunition to Texas Doctor, a patched member of the Rebels motorcycle gang.

Doctor was a victim, and also a perpetrator, of tit-for-tat drive-by shootings in 2022 and was recently sentenced to four years and three months in prison.

Police investigating the shootings seized Doctor’s phones and found messages he exchanged with a licensed firearms holder, who supplied 12-gauge shotguns shells and .223 ammunition to the gang member.

Both cases are examples of “straw buying”, or retail diversion, in which firearms and ammunition are purchased legitimately and then illegally sold into the black market.

Police say the tactic is the most common way for guns to end up in criminal hands, fuelling gang violence but also leading to innocent victims.

Last week, the Herald revealed that the pump-action shotgun used by Matu Reid in a fatal shooting spree at a downtown Auckland construction site had been traced back to a retail purchase.

While Operation Tuscan was unable to identify the “full chain of possession from sale to [crime] scene”, according to a police briefing, two men have been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm.

The details about the Reid shooting, as well as the “straw buying” of the Beretta CX4 Storm for the Head Hunters, was disclosed in a briefing to a group of experts advising Nicole McKee, the associate Justice Minister.

McKee is in charge of the firearms portfolio and has stated the coalition Government is committed to rewriting the Arms Act “in its entirety”.

When in opposition, the Act MP was a vocal critic of the firearms register and other gun-law reform on the grounds that the new rules punished legitimate gun owners, instead of criminals who would break the law anyway.

One of her first moves as a minister was to bring forward a review of the effectiveness of the firearms registry to be completed in June 12 months after the registry started.

But the police maintain the firearms registry will deter “straw buyers”.

“We believe with the firearms registry in place that, in time, it will give police the ability to trace firearms that have been stolen or diverted for use in crime, so we can then identify how firearms get into offenders’ hands,” said Detective Superintendent Ross McKay, the officer in charge of Operation Tuscan.

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee, with police staff, inspecting seized illegal firearms after announcing changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders law in March 2024. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The focus on the illegal supply chain of firearms has become a priority for police in recent years, following a spate of shootings as criminals have become more willing to use firearms to settle disputes.

Released under the Official Information Act, the slideshow presentation given to McKee’s firearms advisers gave a dozen examples of “straw buyers” who had been investigated in recent years.

One of the investigations was Operation Carbine, where a former Hells Angel in Hastings recruited a network of straw buyers to purchase $50,000 of guns and ammunition.

Some were sold to members of the Mongrel Mob, others were delivered to the Killer Beez gang in Auckland during a turf war with the Tribesmen in 2022.

Nearly half of all Firearms Investigation Team prosecutions related to “straw buyers”, according to the police briefing, which started with analysis of 300,000 sales of firearms in recent years.

However, the introduction of the national firearms register in June last year, as well as requiring records to be kept for private sales of guns, is expected to make retail diversion much harder to get away with.

This would lead to organised crime exploring other avenues to find firepower.

Fake and forged licences might become a problem, according to the police briefing, as well as staged burglaries where legitimate gun owners illegally supply firearms but claim they were stolen.

Asked whether she still stood by her previous comments about the effectiveness of the firearms register, McKee said last week that the police briefing was “one source of information that will need to be considered”.

“I will be seeking advice from the Ministry of Justice following their review of the Firearms Registry before making any decisions... I will shortly announce more details.”

Before entering politics, McKee was the spokesperson for the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (Colfo). The lobby group continues to oppose the register.

Instead of making New Zealand safer, the requirement to register each firearm created a “shopping list for criminals” of which houses are most valuable to target, Colfo spokesman Hugh Devereux-Mack has previously said.

“In a time where we see increasing cyber-attacks, and supposedly secure systems being breached, the greatest threat to licensed firearm owners, their families and public safety is the firearms register,” Devereux-Mack said.

Philippa Yasbek, from the lobby group Gun Control NZ, said a national register helps the police stop “diversion in its tracks”.

“There are 250,000 firearms licence holders but we only need a few bad apples to supply gangs with as many guns as they want,” Yasbek said.

“Diverters are less than 0.1 per cent of licence holders but their actions have tragic consequences. We can’t just rely on the vetting of licence holders to keep us safe. We need other tools, such as a registry and the ban on semi-automatic weapons to protect everyone in the community.

“No one measure is a silver bullet, but when we put them together, we will better protect everyone from gun harm.”

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.