Mongrel Mob boss Mathew Phillip Karetu jailed after he was found with $68,000 in Louis Vuitton handbag

• Mathew Phillip Karetu, Mongrel Mob boss, admitted to dealing methamphetamine across the North Island.
• Police found $68,100 in a Louis Vuitton bag, a 9mm pistol, and other assets at his home.
• Karetu went on the run over Christmas but was caught and sentenced this week.

A Mongrel Mob boss caught with $68,000 in a Louis Vuitton bag - and who later went on the run after admitting widespread drug dealing - has been sentenced after police tracked him down.

Mathew Phillip Karetu, 38, was arrested in March 2023 after a covert investigation called Operation Yellowstone which targeted an Auckland businessman selling commercial quantities of methamphetamine.

Karetu, who was living in Tauranga at the time, was one of his customers.

Court documents show the pair met at a bar in Katikati, west of Tauranga, twice in 2023 to exchange cash and drugs in the carpark.

Encrypted messages showed Karetu purchased 1kg of meth for $140,000 at one of the meetings.

As the national president of the Mongrel Mob Barbarians, a faction of the gang who ride motorcycles, Karetu used his status and criminal connections to distribute the drug around the North Island.

One of his gang prospects would deliver methamphetamine on Karetu’s behalf to buyers in the Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Waikato, and Wellington. The prospect also picked up cash from the sales.

Karetu was selling ounces of meth for about $5000, according to encrypted messages the police discovered on his phones.

When they searched his home, detectives also found a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a cash counting machine, and $68,100 inside a Louis Vuitton handbag. There was also $2000 in a TV cabinet, and another $2000 in a car parked on the driveway.

The cash was restrained under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act along with two properties linked to Karetu in Hastings and five vehicles, including his prized Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

“Stripping assets derived through drug dealing activity strikes at the heart of what organised crime figures wish to achieve,” Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Fischer said at the time of Karetu’s arrest.

“Seizing their riches created by causing harm and distress in the community not only denies them the satisfaction of enjoying those assets, it also helps provide some restitution for the damage caused to the community.”

Under the law, police do not need a conviction. They only have to show that someone profited from criminal offending to the lower standard of proof applied in civil cases — “on the balance of probabilities” — rather than surpassing the more difficult “beyond reasonable doubt” threshold for criminal cases.

According to a recent High Court judgment, Karetu was able to obtain those assets despite tax records that show the Mongrel Mob president declared an average income of only $6000 each year.

Mongrel Mob Barbarians president Mathew Phillip Karetu went on the run over Christmas after pleading guilty to numerous methamphetamine offences and unlawful possession of a pistol. Composite Image / NZME

“It is alleged the couple have led a lifestyle that is inconsistent with this level of income, including receiving significant cash deposits into their bank account during this period, enjoying expensive holidays, carrying out extensive property renovations, and acquiring high value vehicles,” Justice Karen Grau wrote in a decision released in October.

Shortly afterwards Karetu pleaded guilty to offering to supply, supplying, and possession of a Class-A drug for supply, unlawful possession of a pistol, and the possession and supply of synthetic cannabis.

Despite pleading guilty to serious charges, Karetu was granted electronically monitored bail to live at the Grace Foundation in Auckland but went on the run before Christmas.

He surrendered after a police manhunt in Hawke’s Bay in the New Year, and was sentenced in the Manukau District Court earlier this week.

From a starting point of 14 years and 10 months in prison, Judge Deidre Orchard reduced Karetu’s sentence by 25% because of his early guilty plea and smaller discounts for personal factors and the impact on his children.

The final sentence was eight years and eight months, although he will be eligible to apply for parole after serving one-third of his time in prison.

The Mongrel Mob Barbarians have chapters across New Zealand and ride motorcycles, unlike most traditional Mobsters who tend to travel in Ford cars.

Late last year, the Barbarians chapter based in Ōpōtiki was targeted by Operation Highwater, a separate National Organised Crime Group investigation, into alleged meth dealing by the gang.

As well as drug dealing, the covert investigation allegedly stopped a couple of hits – described by police as probable homicides – by the gang as it planned to shoot its rivals. One was at a tangi.

More than 30 people were arrested and charged in October. At the time, Karetu was on bail at the Grace Foundation in South Auckland for his drug dealing uncovered earlier in Operation Yellowstone.

Police in Operation Highwater searched the residential bail facility where Karetu was living and found $76,700 in a shared communal space, as well as a loaded .22 pistol.

No charges have been laid but the investigation is ongoing.

Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.