Mark Mitchell: Police Minister on the support available for those wanting to leave gangs

What do you do if you want to leave a gang? 

A coroner has found that Napier Mongrel Mob leader Neil Angus Benson, otherwise known as Heil Dogg, felt trapped in his position in the gang in the months leading up to his suicide in December 2024. 

In his report, Coroner Wilton said Benson appeared to be under "psychological strain of his leadership position in the Mongrel Mob gang". 

“He also described an internal dilemma: wanting to exit the gang lifestyle, but recognising he was too deeply involved for a straightforward exit.” 

So if you want out, what can you do? 

Police Minister Mark Mitchell told Kerre Woodham that from a government perspective, there is a significant amount of support they can provide. 

He says if someone makes the decision to leave and has the fortitude to follow through, the Government will get alongside them and help them. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from news Talks,
he'd be.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
As we were saying. The coroner has found Napier Mongrel
Mob leader known as hail Dog, felt trapped in his
position in the gang in the months leading up to
his death. In his report, Coroner Wilton said Benson appeared
to be under psychological strain of his leadership position in
the Mongrel Mob gang. He described an internal dilemma wanting

(00:33):
to exit the gang lifestyle, but recognizing he was too
deeply involved in a straightforward exit. So if you want
to leave gang life, what options are available to you?
Policemanister Mark Mitchell publicly stated when he was unveiling a
tranch of measures of trying to tamper down the gang's

(00:55):
presence on our streets that those who choose to leave
gangs will be supported, and he joins me, now, very
good morning to you.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Morning Carrie. How are you this morning?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I'm good, thank you, I was just good. I was read.
A Texter yesterday said that he's seeing a lot of
runaway mob runaways in the South Island trying to escape
their mob connections and their mob routes, trying to start
a new life. And then we read today of this
chapter president who committed suicide. He had addiction issues, sure,

(01:29):
but he also realized he was trapped in a gang
life and couldn't leave. What options are available?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yes, so really good question, really good subject to be
getting into, because obviously in New Zealand we are now
probably four generations into Gangham, intergenerational Gangham. And the worst
thing about it, the tragedy is kids being brought into
this environment, born into this environment, and they really have
only got one direction to follow, and that is becoming

(01:58):
a patch gang member. You've just told it. You've just
given a very good outline of the way this guy
felt that he was trapped because they're inside a criminal
organization that tax their members, and by tax, that can
be taking vehicles, possessions, beatings if you want to leave
the gang. So what can we do. We've got massive

(02:20):
support that we can wrap around them from a government
perspective MSD, retraining and providing any sort of help that
we can for game members to leave. I've had a
huge focus on gang members with kids because it is
critically important for us to break that intergenerational cycle. I've
spent a lot of time on this myself, and I've

(02:40):
had I've gone as far as to hand out my
own cell phone number of gang members to say, if
you want to get out, And by the way, they
have to make that conscious decision themselves, and they have
to have the intestinal fortitude to actually follow through on that,
because some things are tough in life, and sometimes when
you make bad decisions, that can be hard to reverse them.

(03:01):
But if you've got the if you've got the focus,
the will and the intestinal fortitude, and that that can
be done with a bit of additional support and help
from government.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Well, when you look at the stories of Timothy Temulkey
and Ben Purduer, I mean, yes they are unicorns, but
it's possible. It shows it's possible, especially for bright young
people who who haven't had that their potential realized.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
One hundred percent. And I've always said this, like, you know,
we'll look, my job was becoming police ministers would go
straight at the problem and sometimes you just have to
do that. And we're doing that, and we've got a
world class police force that is putting enormous pressure on
the gangs and making it much harder to be a
gang member in New Zealand. But sitting right alongside that,
I've always said that we're losing so much potential with

(03:48):
these gang members that are that are that are sort
of focusing all the energy and all the decisions in
the wrong direction when we should be harnessing that for
the benefit our country. So you know, there is two
sides to this, and we're committed to wanting to help
those that want to help themselves without a doubt.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
So there isn't actually a gang task Force assistance unit.
It's just that you will stare them in the direction
of or your people, or will stare them in the
direction of MSD. So they're just like any other punter.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yes, I'm pretty sure that's correct. I have to check
with always UPS and I don't think there's a dedicated
gang task force within MASD. But they are not barred
from they are not blocked from They'll be supported like
any other member of the community if they seek help
FROMMSD to try and change and get themselves onto a
better pathway.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
But unlike other normal members of society, if they do
try and make that change, it can be a life
and death decision. You talked about the taxing, but we
also saw again, you know, a man gunned down and
he was high up within the mob hierarchy, shot outside
of church for God's.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Sake, And let that be a warning for anyone that's
thinking about that. It's called to join a gang, it's not.
These are violent, organized criminal groups. And ye, it's hard
to get out. The deeper you get in, the harder
is to get out. But if you make that decision,
if you make the right decision, like I said to you,
if you've got the intestinal fortitude to go through with it,
anything in life worth having you got to fight for,

(05:19):
then we will get alongside those people and we will
help them.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
It's like choose your heart, isn't it. It's hard being
in the gang. It's hard being out of it.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, but it's better being out of it, especially especially
for those game members with families that are raising young children.
Get them free of it, Get them out of that.
It's a toxic, violent, awful environment for kids to grow up.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
In and for women to be in as well.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, yeah, yes, absolutely, and there's yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
You're seeing results in terms of I mean just thinking
when you said, you know, it's much harder to be
in the gangs. I wonder if that's reflected and my text.
Are seeing so many more runaways turning up in the
South Island?

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, I hope so, because that's part of what we
want to do, is we want to make it so
difficult and so miserable to be a game member in
New Zealand that you look for a better pathway and
you start making better decisions in your life.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Nice to talk as always, Thank you very much, Police
Minister Mark Mitchell.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
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