A rifle and patch were seized as part of Operation Highwater, in October 2024.
When a senior member of Black Power’s Mangu Kaha sub-chapter died, a tangi was planned in the heart of Mongrel Mob territory.
The Mob’s East Bay Barbarians decided to use the death as an opportunity – hatching a plan to fire on mourners gathering at a marae.
A senior Mob member, Tamati Carter, suggested targeting Black Power members during the poroporoaki – a procession involving speeches and songs which happens the night before the burial.
The first service was to take place on the evening of July 8, 2024, at an isolated marae in Ōpōtiki, and the burial procession to follow on July 9, at a different marae, south of Ōpōtiki.
Over those two days, Carter sent messages and made phone calls, helping to co-ordinate and plan the attack.
It was Carter’s idea to “hit them” during the poroporoaki, and he was involved in attempting to get hold of “hotties”, a term for stolen vehicles, and firearms.
Other members allegedly had different roles in the planned attack – some responsible for supplying the firearms and ammunition, some tasked as lookouts, feeding back updates and photos during the early stages of the tangi.
Some were assigned the roles of shooters.
Carter got the word out about a meeting in Ōpōtiki, for members and prospects to discuss and plan the attack, and decide how to respond to Black Power being in their perceived territory.
He asked a fellow gang member if he had a .22 calibre rifle, and any “machine guns”.
On another call, he discussed a member of the gang who was “going through issues” in his life and was possibly suicidal.
Carter discussed “using that to their advantage” by sending the member “on a suicide mission”.
But police thwarted the plans, drastically increasing the police presence in Ōpōtiki during the tangi, not through luck or coincidence, but because they were listening to the Mob’s plans.
The National Organised Crime Group had been surveilling a network of Mongrel Mob Barbarians since late 2023, in a targeted drug-supply operation, code-named Operation Highwater.
Now, Carter has pleaded guilty to 39 charges that relate to the operation, including some relating to the planned shooting, which was allegedly orchestrated by another member with Carter in a “senior role”.
The July tangi progressed without any inter-gang violence, but by October, police had got wind of another close call, this time about a potential gang confrontation at Whakatāne Hospital.
Again, no significant gang violence eventuated, but 12 days later, on October 22, 2024, police carried out more than 30 search warrants and arrested 28 people connected to the East Bay Barbarians.
Police also estimated they restrained assets totalling $800,000.
Those alleged to have been involved have been progressing through the court system for more than a year and Carter, who is in custody, is the most senior member to enter guilty pleas.
This week, NZME was provided with the Crown’s summary of facts, which detailed Carter’s involvement, including violence, methamphetamine dealing, and cannabis cultivation.
Carter facilitated the distribution of methamphetamine throughout the North Island – mainly in the Waikato region, including Hamilton and the Coromandel, the Bay of Plenty, and Wellington, throughout 2024.
He sold methamphetamine in ounce quantities to those beneath him in the chain.
Between early 2023 and April 30, 2024, he was working for a more senior gang member, and during that time, he offered, possessed and supplied 169.5g.
From April 30, 2024, he began running a new operation, supplying former street dealers without the oversight of the more senior Mob member.
During this period, he supplied 642g of methamphetamine, totalling 811.5g between January 2023 and the conclusion of the police operation.
The summary of facts details the messages he sent, and phone calls he made as he co-ordinated buyers and sellers, drop-offs and pick-ups.
In one, he offered to supply an ounce for $5500 over the following three weeks, and then drop the price to $5000 per ounce after that.
In another exchange, he texted an associate to meet in the McDonald’s carpark in Rototuna to pick up cash, before offering to “flick some old school”, which police said was an offer to supply an unknown amount of New Zealand-made meth.
Other references were made to “an old one”, which also referred to New Zealand-made meth.
Between October 2023 and October 2024, Carter was part of a group of East Bay Barbarians that controlled an “isolated area in the remote Urewera Forest”, about 800m from the Tāwhana marae.
Within the area was the Department of Conservation’s Te Pourewa Hut.
According to the summary of facts, the group used the area for growing, harvesting, drying and manicuring a commercial quantity of cannabis plants, and Carter was involved in the cultivation and harvest of no fewer than 208 mature cannabis plants between October 2023 and May 2024.
The summary said the Te Pourewa Hut had been illegally controlled by the group, and was used for hanging and drying the cannabis.
Carter assisted in the cultivation by boring holes in the ground for seedlings.
The cannabis was then sold in ounce and pound quantities.
During a phone call, Carter had explained the benefit of diversifying into selling cannabis, as well as methamphetamine, as it was the same amount of profit and “less lag”, referring to jail time.
The summary also includes details of a serious assault in March 2023, when two separate factions of the Mongrel Mob were at an Ōpōtiki address and were having “one-on-one” fights, while about 12 people looked on.
An unidentified gang member, referred to as complainant A, was fighting another man, before Carter subbed in.
He began punching and kicking complainant A, as the previous captain of the East Bay Barbarians, the late Steven Taiatini, allegedly egged him on, saying, “F***en in there Tarmz Dog, smoke this c*** dog”.
The summary said Carter was also known as “Tarmz Dog”.
The attack continued, with others joining in at one point, and Carter later stomped on Complainant A’s abdomen and kicked him in the face.
When the beating ended, the man was bleeding from the mouth and nose, and had a swollen eye.
On the morning of October 10, 2024, another gang member was in Whakatāne Hospital, where there were also Black Power members present.
Carter was made aware of Black Power’s presence, and an alleged assault by an East Bay Barbarians member on a Black Power member.
A request was made for “all the members” to come to the Barbarian’s assistance, and to bring firearms, as there were senior members of Black Power in cars at the hospital.
Carter made an anonymous call to police at 11.45am to report a gang conflict at Whakatāne Hospital, involving his friend.
Police and hospital security attended the incident and ensured the groups remained separated.
But about 12.20pm, Carter went, allegedly with others, to a property in Ōpōtiki and smashed the front door glass.
Cupboards were searched and things were thrown about, including a container of oysters that had been at the entrance.
Four Black Power hoodies, a Black Power patch and a PlayStation were taken from the address.
Carter, in conversation with his associate at the hospital, referred to having “five trophies”, and said he had spilt oysters in the house.
Police made arrests and search warrants just 12 days after this incident, terminating Operation Highwater on October 23.
Carter initially faced more charges, but in the process of resolution, some were withdrawn, some amended, and some combined as representative charges.
He has now pleaded guilty to 39 charges, and will remain in custody until his sentencing in August.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.