It was all over in a few minutes. Two people, 11 bullets.
Small-time drug dealer Abraham Tu'uheava was lying dead on the side of the road, shot in the head, arm and back.
His wife, Mele, was critically ill, two bullets lodged in her skull.
The pair had begged for
their lives, but the three gunmen were having none of it.
"Nah," one said as, with a smirk, he pulled the trigger.
The execution-style murder in Mangere, South Auckland, two years ago signalled a dramatic escalation in gang violence - a ruthless illustration of what police predicted would follow the enforced deportation to New Zealand of members of some of Australia's bikie gangs.
The arrival of those disenfranchised gangsters has turned the New Zealand gang scene on its head, coinciding with what police describe as "uncontrolled growth" in existing local gangs.
Today, a Weekend Herald investigation can reveal:
• Police data shows gang members now number more than 7000 for the first time, up 50 per cent between December 2016 and December 2019.
• Australian motorcycle gangs, although a small fraction of the "501s" deported here, have a disproportionate influence because of their transnational organised crime links and sophisticated tradecraft, including use of encrypted phones.
• Such gangs, like the Comancheros and the Mongols, are ratcheting up the tension by expanding into rival turf and strategically "patching over" senior members of other gangs.
• Their arrival has coincided with strong growth in all major New Zealand gangs with the Mongrel Mob still the largest by far with 2548 members, followed by Black Power (1590) and by the Head Hunters (441).
• Gang members in the Bay of Plenty increased by 15 per cent over 12 months to 1439, the most in the country. Seven other police districts experienced double-digit growth.
• Although the police are sceptical of the "pro-whanau" social movement of chapters such as the Waikato Mongrel Mob, their leader and New Zealand's leading gang researcher say government policy to address social inequity will be more effective than "tough on gang" political rhetoric.
"It's the perfect storm in some ways. In a crowded room, someone invariably gets elbowed. When that happens in the gang scene, an elbow tends to escalate," says Dr Jarrod Gilbert, who wrote Patched: A History of Gang Life in New Zealand.
"We've seen that before in the 1970s and 1980s. And we're seeing that now. The question is how far it goes."
Abraham Tu'uheava was murdered by Viliami Taani, a member of the Comanchero MC, and two other men.
The trio were given the "green light" for the execution because Tu'uheava was passing himself off as a "Commo" while selling methamphetamine in the South Island.
The motorcycle gang announced their arrival in New Zealand just a few months earlier, setting themselves up in New Zealand thanks to harsh changes to the immigration laws of our closest ally, Australia.
Just before Christmas 2014, the newly appointed Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, rushed through amendments to the Migration Act to impose a character test on visa applicants and non-citizens.
Visas were automatically cancelled if an individual failed the character test, written into law as section 501, because they had a substantial criminal record, defined as a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or more.
Over the next five years, thousands of these so-called "501s", many of whom had lived their entire lives in Australia, were deported "home" to New Zealand where they often arrived penniless with no long-term accommodation, employment or even family to support them.
Many had mental health issues or drug and alcohol addictions, which when combined with anger about being separated from their lives in Australia, increased the risk of criminal or anti-social behaviour.
But among the 501s was a somewhat smaller subset that posed a much greater risk to New Zealand; Australian bikies who were targeted for deportation because of their senior positions within gangs.
Underworld figures and senior detectives were quick to anticipate how the arrival of brash Aussies, with reputations for shooting first and asking questions later, would radically disrupt the gang scene.
Pasilika Naufahu was among 14 Comancheros deported to New Zealand and appointed the president of the club's first chapter here.
In a sign of the times, the official announcement of the new chapter was made on social media in February 2018.
Photographs of six imposing men, including Naufahu, wearing tight Comanchero New Zealand T-shirts, hands clasped on wrists, were posted online.
Standing behind two customised, gold-plated Harley-Davidson motorcycles, the men had thick gold chains around their necks, designer sunglasses and expensive watches.
"All done and sworn in . . . welcome aboard to my brothers in New Zealand. Another Comanchero chapter opened up. We are growing stronger and stronger," the caption said, and went on to refer to the Australian politician who created the harsh deportation policy.
"F*** Peter Dutton. But you made this possible #lol."
It was quite a statement. And it came just days after "Mick" Hawi, the former national president of the Comancheros in Australia, was fatally gunned down in a Sydney gym car-park, by two masked men in broad daylight.
Hawi's violent death revived memories of the 2009 bikie wars and the Sydney airport brawl.
The possibility of similar violence in New Zealand, with innocent bystanders getting caught in the crossfire, was acknowledged by Detective Superintendent Greg Williams when he confirmed to the Herald on Sunday in February 2018 the Comancheros had formed a New Zealand chapter.