Mongols gang cash and jewellery forfeited after Christchurch drug raids

Mongols gang members have lost cash and jewellery after police seized the items following a series of drug raids. Photo / George Heard

Mongols gang members have lost cash and jewellery after police seized the items following a series of drug raids.

A High Court decision has named South Island Mongols president Jason Allan Ross, treasurer Anthony Peter Tucker, sergeant in arms Brendan Joseph Gallagher, patched member John Ranui Peek, and associate Jacob Anthony Benson-Carr as respondents in the forfeiture order.

The court has ruled that $68,288 in cash and jewellery was tainted and must be forfeited under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.

According to the decision, the Mongols established a chapter in Christchurch when Ross was elected president in December 2019.

The Mongols' Christchurch gang pad had a fully stocked bar, pool tables, stripper poles and burnout pad. Photo / NZ Police

Ross, Tucker and Gallagher lived at the gang’s headquarters in Burnham, where they dealt methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine.

Police launched an investigation, named Operation Silk, and raided the property on February 27, 2020.

A $16,000 diamond ring, a gold necklace valued at $8800 and a $2800 ring were discovered and believed to belong to Tucker.

Tucker was located in a shed at the property where $12,395 was also found, while $1550 was discovered in his bedroom and $820 on him.

Police found a bag belonging to Peek which contained $12,000, and $2050 was found on him.

Methamphetamine and other controlled drugs, drug paraphernalia, firearms and ammunition and explosive devices were also found on the property.

On April 1, 2020, police raided a Rolleston house where they found Ross and Benson-Carr.

They seized $11,820 from the property.

The Mongols gang pad in Burnham, Christchurch, after police raided it.

Operation Silk was terminated in December 2021, when charges were laid against various members of the Mongols, including Ross, who was later jailed for 12 years.

Tucker and Gallagher pleaded guilty to a range of criminal charges arising from the raid.

Peek was not charged in relation to the search of the gang pad.

Benson-Carr, an Australian linked with the Mongols between September and December 2020, has convictions for arms and drug offending and has since left New Zealand.

The arrival of the Mongols in Christchurch caused significant tensions in the city’s underworld.

A barbershop, with only tenuous links to Ross, was gutted after a firebombing.

About a month later, in the early hours of February 23, 2020, the Burnham gang pad was shot at in a drive-by shooting.

A dark-coloured SUV driving south on State Highway 1 fired several bullets into the living areas of the main building at the pad.

As a result, the gang reinforced the main building and began erecting a fence at the front.

Four days after the drive-by shooting, police raided the gang’s pad.

The wholesale value of the methamphetamine located was about $20,000, with a street value of about $91,000.

The methamphetamine had been supplied to Ross through the Mongol network.

On several occasions, Ross had received kilograms of methamphetamine from members of the gang in the North Island.

It was then distributed further through the Mongols’ network in the South Island and sold to consumers.

Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.