The latest police application was taken nominally against gang president Jim \u201cJD\u201d Thacker<\/a>, who is serving a prison term of 22 years and four months for 40 convictions including possessing methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy for supply.<\/p>\n However, the total sum includes a stash of $44,640 seized from a P\u0101pamoa house linked to Leon \u201cthe Wolf\u201d Huritu<\/a>, the Mongols\u2019 sergeant-at-arms.<\/p>\n Huritu is serving a 15-year term for drug-dealing and his involvement in the Waikeria Prison riot<\/a> at New Year 2021, which caused $50 million worth of damage.<\/p>\n Other gang members have been named in connection to the rest of the seized money, but none has come forward to claim it.<\/p>\n In the latest application, police said the \u201cprofit-driven illicit activities of the gang\u201d were used to fund further illegal activity and buy assets.<\/p>\n These assets then came under the control of Thacker and another senior gang member.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cash which is the subject of the application was seized from respondents other than Mr Thacker; however, the commissioner [of police] attributes it to Mr Thacker on the basis of his position within the gang,\u201d the High Court decision in the case said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn particular, the persons who were in possession of the cash at the time the police seized it have made no claim to the cash, and there is no legitimate explanation from them as to the provenance of the cash.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no opposition from any respondent or interested party to the application for forfeiture.\u201d<\/p>\n Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith said she was satisfied that the cash was \u201ctainted property\u201d able to be forfeited under the criminal proceeds recovery law. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is more than sufficient evidence that the Mongols Motorcycle Gang was involved in serious criminal offending and, on the balance of probabilities, that the cash located is part of the proceeds of that criminal offending,\u201d Justice Wilkinson-Smith said.<\/p>\n She issued the forfeiture order vesting the money in the possession of the Crown.<\/p>\n It will now be added to a fund administered by the Ministry of Justice, from where it can be allocated to approved organisations working to offset the harm caused by criminal offending.<\/p>\n Before Operation Silk, the Mongols provoked gang conflict in the Bay of Plenty<\/a> and Christchurch<\/a> after influential members were deported from Australia and established chapters in New Zealand.<\/p>\n A violent turf war between the Mongols and other motorcycle gangs in Tauranga \u2013 with at least six shootings \u2013 broke out over control of the local drug trade.<\/p>\n The public nature of the shootings and associated fire-bombings was reminiscent of the Sydney gang wars in Australia, where many of the Mongols were deported from as \u201c501s\u201d.<\/p>\n Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.<\/p>\nCash was found in a sock drawer and seized by Bay of Plenty police during Operation Silk in 2020. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n