Oz ‘501′ deportee charged with making 3D printed guns and drug dealing while on home detention for 3D gun and drugs offences

The plans for the 3D printed FGC-9 semi-automatic pistol are widely available on the internet.

A “501″ deportee has been charged with illegally manufacturing 3D-printed pistols in Auckland - while serving a sentence of home detention for possession of a similar weapon.

The 40-year-old, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was deported from Australia in September 2020 on a chartered flight because of travel restrictions in place during the Covid pandemic.

Australian media reported the man was deported because of his status as the national president of an outlaw motorcycle gang who had drug and firearms convictions.

Two years later, he was convicted in New Zealand for carrying a 3D-printed 9mm pistol and a Taser, and possession of methamphetamine and ammunition.

He was sentenced in November to 12 months’ home detention, which he was serving in an apartment in downtown Auckland.

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But the specialist firearms unit in the police National Organised Crime Group (NOCG) this year started a new investigation into allegations the deportee was printing 3D firearms.

Court documents show the man was arrested in June and charged with two counts of illegally manufacturing firearms, as well as allegedly supplying methamphetamine and GBL on multiple occasions.

He was also charged with unlawful possession of ammunition.

The 3D-printed firearms were the FGC-9 model of semi-automatic pistols.

FGC stands for “F*** Gun Control”, and the plans for the firearm are widely available online.

Prosecutions for manufacturing 3D-printed firearms are relatively rare in New Zealand, although in recent years, police officers have started to find homemade guns more frequently.

Plans to manufacture 3D firearms almost entirely out of plastic - save for a few metal components - can easily be found online.

This makes it possible to circumvent laws restricting the sale and purchase of firearms, although not many 3D-printed firearms have been found in New Zealand - possibly because of the perceived unreliability of the homemade weapons.

The most recent 3D-printed guns investigation into the 501 deportee came after Wayne Te Awawa John Clarke pleaded guilty to attempting to manufacture FGC-9 firearms.

When police raided Clarke’s home in 2021, they found a 3D printer manufacturing a part to build one of the semi-automatic pistols.

A selection of parts for the FGC-9 including telescopic stock pieces, a magazine, pistol grip, lower and upper receivers, were beside the printer at Clarke’s home.

The gang member is due to be sentenced in the Auckland District Court next week.

Detectives believe more 3D guns are likely to be found in the futurebecause it will become harder for organised criminals to obtain firearms from licenced firearms owners - known as retail diversion or straw buying - now that the national firearms register is in place.

As well as 3D-printed firearms, other avenues could include gun-smuggling by sea, targeted burglaries of gun owners, or “smash-and-grab” ram raids on dealers.

There is also the likelihood of “guns for hire” where licence holders retain physical possession of their firearms but rent them to criminals.

New Zealand also has an unknown number of “grey market” firearms: purchased by gun licence holdersand then banned after the Aramoana massacre and the Christchurch terror attack, but not handed over during the government buy-back period.

No one knows how many exist, but gun lobby groups estimated there could be hundreds of thousands, which could then enter the black market.