Andrew Coster: Police Commissioner on Auckland police seizing almost $15m worth of Head Hunter assets

A win for Auckland police, who have seized almost $15 million worth of of Head Hunter assets and properties - including the prized Mount Wellington gang pad.

Items taken from President Wayne Doyle, under the Criminal Proceeds Act, include properties in New Lynn and Freeman's Bay.

Other assets include two bank accounts, a vehicle and $275,000 cash found at a gang address in 2017.

Commissioner Andrew Coster says this is the fruit of seven years' work.

"And it shows that we will persist until we can recover assets that are obtained through criminal means."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Police have scored a big win against the gangs. Today
they will seize fifteen million dollars worth of assets from
the Headhunters and that includes the gang's pad in Mount
Wellington and some other properties. And this is after the
High Court ruled and the police has favored Today the
Police Commissioner Andrew cost is with us now, Andrew, that'snon Heather.
Was this ever going to go any other way than
your way?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Absolutely? The team has had to be a huge amount
of work to demonstrate the connection between the property mister
Doyle as the president of the Headhunters and the unlawfull activity.
So it's been a couple of years of very solid
work by a small team on the financial part and
then a much longer chain of investigations targeting the head

(00:46):
Hunters for they're from activity to provide the basis for
that application.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Why was it important? Why was his role in the
gang so important? Whether he was the president or a
senior member.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
The property was held by entities connected with him, and
so we needed to demonstrate his role over the top
of the head Hunter's crimonal activities for that property probably
to be shown to be tainted by that offending. And
it was and it shows that, you know, we will

(01:19):
persist until we can recover assets that are chained through
criminal means.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
What are you going to do with it?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
It goes into the proceeds of Prime fund, which is
a fund that can be accessed.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
I mean, are you going to sell the power organized crime?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Oh? Look, yeah, property it's disposed of and there's a
process that gets followed for that. So there's potential of
an appeal here. So there'll be a little bit of
what's going to the bridge yet, But you know, a
great success for the team that's been doing the work.
I'm incredibly proud of there.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Do you reckon? Everybody's going to want to buy this pad?
Because I remember some somewhere down south, maybe Tom Rule,
something like this, maybe somewhere else, there was a pad
that was going to be sold in the gang called
such trouble. Nobody wants to buy the blinking thing.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
It's a commercial property and it looks a lot like
any others, but for the fact that it's been customized
in particular ways. So that's something that the official sn
will work through as they resolve it. But the point
here is this property is not going back to the
gang and We've had a great one targeting a group
that's ped alled a huge amount of misery into our community.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, they're just going to set up somewhere else, tho, aren't.
They're not going to give up, are they?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Look? These gangs are very persistent. But when you lose
money that's been accumulated over years and years, it does hurt,
and it does make a difference. And the point for
us really is demonstrating that, you know, if you obtain
profit this way, you're not going to be able to
hold onto it.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Andrew your man in Auckland, I think it's Tony Wakelan
is his name. He said he's told people off today
for filming at that actual yesterday in State Highway one.
Do you have a view on that?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Look, I think just because you can doesn't mean you should.
And in the end, you know, we're talking about people's lives,
and people surely exercise some judgment about the kind of
thing that we're going to post in the kind of
thing we're not. I mean, people will make their own decisions,
But you know, I think I think the message is
probably right, and I think most people would agree that
that's not really the kind of thing that we want

(03:27):
to see an a.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
We're wasting our breath because it feels like the horse
has bolted. Everybody's got a camera on their phones, and
everybody thinks it's really important to stick absolutely everything on
social media.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yes they do. Look, I would like to think that
people can exercise some judgment, and I think for the
means of the public and the families who are deeply
offended to see that, it's good for them to hear
from place that actually, hey, we don't think that's okay,
even if people are going to continue doing that.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Andrew, thank you for your time. I appreciate this. Andrew Costa,
the police commissioner. This is what Counties Manecow Road Police
Manager Inspector Tony Wakeland said.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Okay, can I just say I thought that was disgusting.
It really was. I mean I saw some of the footage.
It was filmed before emergency services arrived. There were close
ups of people deceasing the van and injured line on
the road. As I say, I thought it was horrible.
As said a lot of my colleagues, that's not acceptable.
You know, we should not be doing that. And I
say to the people that had filming that, how would
you feel if that's your family.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
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Speaker 3 (04:29):
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