This year the Herald’s award-winning newsroom produced a range of first-class journalism, including investigating the state of our mental health in the Great Minds series, how NZ can rebuild stronger post-Covid with The New New Zealand and how to minimise the impact of living in an Inflation Nation.
We also tackled our literacy crisis in our Reading Block series, while dogged investigative reporting by Kate McNamara resulted in an investigation into the awarding of contracts to businesses associated with family members of Cabinet minister Nanaia Mahuta.
This summer we’re bringing back some of the best-read Premium articles of 2022. Today, investigative reporter Jared Savage takes us behind-the-scenes of his stories delving into New Zealand’s underbelly.
The ‘Old Man’ of NZ crime
Inside the brown A4 envelope handed to me was a police file that was nearly as old as me. Two Australian detectives landed in Wellington on May 29, 1984 to look into the disappearance of a young Sydney couple. No one had seen or heard from Anna Fiore and Bernard Gray since February that year. She was just 19 and had never been in trouble with the law. Gray was 30, and a crook from Lower Hutt. According to the historic police file given to me, the detectives were looking for a man called John Pomeroy - an alias for Leslie Maurice Green. He had been a legendary figure in New Zealand’s criminal underworld, and according to interviews with other crooks and cops who knew him, a suspect in at least six unsolved murders.
The Auckland gang wars (Part 1)
Tensions between rival gangs have escalated over the past five years which has been largely attributed to the arrival of Australian motorcycle clubs. But the most sustained violence in 2022 was between two formerly allied gangs in Otara, the Tribesmen and the Killer Beez, which was born out of a deeply personal feud. The tit-for-tat feud between the warring clubs led to at least 21 drive-by shootings, as well as firebombings, in the space of three weeks. No one was killed in the conflict but there was a significant casualty: the Police Minister Poto Williams. Gangs had become a political issue and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern relieved Williams of the portfolio as she had “lost focus”. Not long after, gang and police sources tipped me off that the Tribesmen and Killer Beez had agreed to end the shootings, which the Herald published in this exclusive story.
The Auckland gang wars (Part 2)
There are other feuds between rival gangs which remain ongoing, such as the conflict between the Head Hunters and Mongols motorcycle clubs. For so long, the Head Hunters had been the dominant power in the criminal underworld until newcomers from Australia, like the Mongols, challenged their power after being deported. Like the Tribesmen v Killer Beez war, there was a series of tit-for-tat shootings and firebombings of gang-linked homes and businesses which stayed mostly under the radar. However, in this case, the rivalry spilled into a very public place and put the lives of innocent bystanders at risk: the lobby of a five-star hotel in downtown Auckland. I pulled together this feature article about the Sofitel shooting from the evidence given during the trial of a group of Head Hunters in the High Court at Auckland.
Where criminals get their guns
With shootings between criminals now so commonplace, the obvious question to ask is how so much firepower is falling into the wrong hands. For many years, the police have believed that most firearms in criminal hands are stolen from legitimate gun owners. This claim has frustrated some in the firearms community, who say there is little data to back up the claim. Analysis of gun sale records has uncovered a tactic known as retail diversion of firearms, or “straw buyers”, where licensed firearms owners sell guns to criminals. The unforeseen consequences of “straw buying” was highlighted in this investigation into the death of Constable Matt Hunt, which I pieced together from transcripts of court evidence, documents released under the Official Information Act, and interviews.
Broken people, broken dreams
Over the past few years, the Waikato Mongrel Mob had become the most high-profile gang chapters in the country. Their leader Sonny Fatupaito engaged with the media with interviews and press releases about the actions of police, the failure of the state, and highlighting their good works. On the other hand, senior members of the Waikato Mob had been arrested and charged with serious drug dealing. This feature draws together evidence from three different police investigations, and ends with the downfall of a high-ranking member living a double life.
‘I’m glad I got caught’
New Zealand is considered to be largely free of corruption but the rise of organised crime means law enforcement investigations are finding ‘insider threats’ more often. After the first Covid lockdown of 2020, I published a front page story about a group of Air New Zealand baggage handlers charged with helping a passenger smuggle 20kg of methamphetamine through the border - the first case of its kind locally. The man caught with the suitcase full of drugs was Romney Fukofuka. To my surprise, he agreed to an on-the-record interview while on bail in which he spoke frankly about his life and crimes.
‘Back in the game’
In 2018, I wrote a story for the Herald on Sunday about the first New Zealand chapter of the Comancheros motorcycle club after a number were deported from Australia as ‘501s’. Since then, the gang’s presence has radically changed the local criminal underworld, and the police have also responded with several long-running investigations into the Comancheros. When most of the club’s hierarchy were arrested for money laundering offences, the mantle of leadership fell to a young member. He became the target of a new inquiry, Operation Cincinnati, and this feature is written from the evidence heard in a High Court trial.