Mongols trial: Key witness testimony so detailed he could have been ‘expert’, Crown claims

Five molotov cocktails were found during Operation Silk in 2020, which targeted members of the Mongols gang currently on trial in the High Court at Hamilton. Photo / NZ Police

Evidence of a key crown witness in a trial involving nine Mongols gang associates has been so “detailed and vast”, he could have been called as an expert, the crown has suggested in its closing statement.

In the eleventh week of the trial involving members including president Jim “JD” Thacker and vice president Hone Ronaki, crown prosecutor Anna Pollett was able to begin wrapping up their case for the jury in the High Court at Hamilton.

The jury has listened to the evidence of more than 200 witnesses and the details of more than 100 charges laid against the accused since August.

In her closing submission this afternoon, Pollett said she expected defence counsel to try and disseminate the evidence of their key witness and pre-empted a possible character assassination.

“You might think this is because of the significance of the evidence he has given, to provide you with first-hand evidence … it may even be suggested that [key witness] has made everything up to ensure he keeps his immunity.

“Or that he has some beef with the group in speaking to police and giving evidence.

“[Key witness] was a knowledgeable witness who gave evidence of what he was involved in.

“[His] knowledge was detailed and it was vast.

“This is not the sort of material anyone could fabricate without having some first-hand knowledge of what occurred.

“What is not the truth, is that [witness] was granted immunity so has lied to ensure he avoids liability himself.”

She said he had the hallmarks of a “credible and reliable witness … so much so that he could really have been qualified as an expert into this organised criminal group”.

“What is inescapable is that his evidence was detailed in the extreme … any attack on [him] is because of the strength and accuracy of his evidence.”

That witness spoke of not only the twice-weekly trips to Auckland to get cocaine for Thacker and his “extremely bad” cocaine habit, but also travelling the length of the country delivering drugs, including methamphetamine, on behalf of the gang.

Loose lips and the fight that changed NZ gang culture

She began her closing by reminding them of how the Mongols began, with Thacker and Hone Ronaki returning to New Zealand from Australia in September and October of 2018.

Huritu and Petrowski came back in August of the same year, and at that stage, all of them were patched members of the Bandidos.

The idea was, she said, that the group would set up a Bandidos chapter in Bay of Plenty with Hone Ronaki as president.

However, the gang had one of its members who was “given a hiding at a party” in Christchurch which then led to Thacker, Ronaki and a third member going down there and “assaulting” those involved.

The retaliation upset “the higher-ups” in Australia, and those involved were de-patched.

A Mongols motorcycle recovered as part of Operation Silk. Photo / NZ Police

It was then that the Mongols, an international gang originally established in the United States in 1969, were set up in Bay of Plenty, dubbing it a “significant development in the gang culture in New Zealand”.

Thacker was president, Hone Ronaki vice-president, Huritu was sergeant at arms and Petrowski secretary or treasurer, she said.

In the second half of 2019, Jason Ross was in the Hells Angels gang before being patched over to the Mongols, becoming its South Island president based in Christchurch.

By January 2020, about 40 other Hells Angels members were also patched over to the Mongols.

Pollett said defence counsel may try to imply, in their closing submissions, that the defendants were hardly international criminals, “look at the set-up, there’s hardly anything organised about them”, she suggested counsel might say.

However, with help of various surveillance warrants, the crown had been able to detail how the gang was established up until the termination of Operation Silk on June 23, 2020.

She submitted the gang made significant inroads in the relatively short period it operated, including setting up chapters in Auckland and Christchurch.

“They had access to kilograms of methamphetamine.

“They also had the means to accumulate a serious cache of arms to make them capable of serious violence which of course we know they did in late June 2020.”

While this nine were defending their charges, she pointed out how 12 other members had already pleaded guilty to a variety of charges.

The purpose of revealing that to the jury was not only to see what’s been accepted but “provides conclusive proof that these offences occurred”.

They largely involved Hone Ronaki who was the only one in the group to use his own cellphone and thereby allow police to covertly listen in.

“They say loose lips sink ships and, Hone Ronaki, you may think let the side down by using his own cypher phone.”

As for Kane Ronaki, who was at the time of the operation an unpatched member, he is jointly charged with being in possession of firearms when stopped by police on May 6, 2020, allegedly heading to a planned shooting at a Malcolm Ave property.

Te Reneti Tarau faces charges of possession and conspiring to supply methamphetamine on May 17, 2020, along with Hone Ronaki.

Matthew Ramsden was neither patched, associated or related by any family of the gang, but given his role of allegedly processing, handling and cleaning the methamphetamine, there only had to be three others involved for him to also face a charge of participating in an organised criminal group.

After listening to the evidence, some of the charges had been “dismissed or refined”.

Seventy were dismissed on Monday.

Pollett said she would hand the jury four separate documents to try and assist them in going through all the evidence.

Her closing submissions will continue tomorrow.

The defendants

President Jim Thacker – known as “JD”, “Jack Daniels”, “the Cap”, or “el Presidente” is alleged to have had overarching control of its drug dealing operation.

In total, the group are defending more than 100 charges related to drug dealing and supply, firearms, aggravated robbery, and money laundering.

The other defendants are Hone Ronaki, Jason Ross, 46, Kelly Petrowski, 28, Matthew Ramsden, 45, Kane Ronaki, 24, Te Reneti Tarau, 26, and a 28-year-old man with interim name suppression.

The accused are either “office holders”, members, or associates of the Mongols from around the country, including Hawke’s Bay, Christchurch, and Auckland.

The Crown alleges they were responsible for the commercial supply of drugs throughout New Zealand and were involved in “tit-for-tat” shootings with rival gangs, including one in Tauranga, where Mongols members fired 96 rounds of ammunition at a house where children were.

The gang allegedly obtained, distributed, and broke down quantities of drugs and sold them for profit. They used the firearms to service that drug trade, the crown claimed.