BROUGHT DOWN FROMTHE INSIDE

• Published date: 09 July 2023
• Publication title: Herald on Sunday

The drop spot in the long shadows of a forestry block by the prison was cold, eerie. And he was weary. It had been a long drive: from the Bay of Plenty up to Auckland to pick up the stuff, back home to have it cut and vacuum-sealed, then hitting the road again south to the capital, across on the ferry, and south again, down, down, to Christchurch to meet the South Island honcho for the first time

This had all happened quickly, becoming the trusted driver and drug courier for the New Zealand underbelly’s latest player, the Mongols MC gang.

Earlier in the year — 2019 — he was sucked into their nefarious orbit. At a house in Te Puke, he was introduced to the national president, Jim “JD” Thacker. A notorious 501 deportee from Australia, Thacker had started the first Mongols chapter in the country and had strong-armed into drug territory long held by the Greazy Dogs and Mongrel Mob.

And Thacker desired empire expansion. He wanted the South Island too and had identified just the man for the job: Jason “666” Ross, the Hells Angels’ Quake City chapter president, who was having internal beef. In a sudden and seismic move that rocked the Christchurch underworld, Ross would patch over to the Mongols and head a new chapter to do battle with other gang incomers like the Rebels, Tribesmen, Head Hunters and Comancheros. They were all ruthlessly keen to cash in on the local drug market, where meth was fetching higher prices than anywhere else in the country.

Now, some months on, Thacker was sending Ross drugs. While the Wheel Man drove south, he communicated with 666 via Ciphr phone — an encrypted messaging device and app. They had agreed on a place near the prison, close to 666’s Rolleston home.

Finally, a white 4WD Mercedes SUV rolled up. The two men got out and exchanged greetings. Ross, aka 666, handed Wheel Man a shoebox filled with $100,000 in cash, in $5000 bundles. He also gave the drug mule a mystery 4L bottle of clear liquid. In return, Wheel Man handed over a canvas shopping bag containing 2kg of meth.

“Then he went his way, and I went my way,” said Wheel Man, the former drug courier turned secret Crown witness who would bring the whole Mongols gang down.

But that downfall was a few years away. In the meantime, El Presidente, Wheel Man and 666 would start flooding the South Island with methamphetamine.

Parked outside the Te Puke parley were pimped-out Harley-Davidsons, tinted SUVs, grunty V8 Holden Commodores and black Mercedes Benz SUVs. Inside were stacks and stacks and stacks of cash and heavily-tattooed gangsters with bulging muscles, wearing Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

If the Wheel Man wanted to be their driver — and he said he did — he would first have to pass a test. And for that, he would need a new phone. A ghost phone.

Kelly Petrowski, aka Rhino, the Mongols’ secretary and treasurer whose motorbike’s rego was RYKNO, took Wheel Man to The Warehouse. He advised what cellphone to buy, along with SIM card and top-up, before setting him up with a Wickr account — an encrypted messaging app.

He was given a trial job. If he did well, there could be more.

Given a VF Holden Commodore SS, he was to head south and make a meth drop.

“I was told I had to drive to Picton and when I got there, I’d get a message from another Wickr account and then I was to meet up with someone, do an exchange and then travel back,” Wheel Man told a 12-week trial in the High Court at Hamilton last year, where nine senior Mongols gang figures faced a raft of drugs and weapons charges.

He was given two vac-packed cylindrical bundles “rolled up in like a whole bunch of Glad Wrap”.

The car had two stash spots: “There’s one underneath the dash, above the steering wheel and there’s a bigger one — there’s a roof compartment with a light and you can just pop that out.”

Wheel Man drove on and off the Cook Strait ferry and messaged the number he was given. They arranged the spot, a rest area just south of Picton.

There...