Former rugby star charged with buying firearms for Comancheros, faking burglary

A former international rugby player is alleged to have sold guns to a member of a notorious motorcycle gang and then faked a burglary to cover his tracks.

Suppression orders mean the man cannot be
identified but the retired professional once represented New Zealand on the world stage.

Court documents show the former player now faces criminal charges over five Alfa Carbine rifles he is alleged to have bought from two Auckland Gun City stores in June last year.

Detectives from a specialist firearms investigation team allege that he was a “straw buyer”; a licensed owner who purchased the weapons on behalf of criminal associates who cannot legally buy them.

The Alfa Carbine rifles are typically sought after by gangs because they can be easily cut down to pistols – which are prized in the criminal community because they are easier to conceal and wield.

The former rugby player is alleged to have purchased the rifles with more than $10,000 given to him by a member of the Comancheros outlaw motorcycle club.

Three months later, in October 2022, he allegedly laid a complaint with police that the firearms had been stolen.

The retired player also made a successful insurance claim for $11,345.

He became the target of Operation Rackley, an investigation by the National Organised Crime Group (NOCG), and was charged this month with unlawful possession of firearms, insurance fraud, as well as making a false complaint to police.

A patched Comanchero was arrested this week and charged with unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.

Police believe the “straw buyer” tactic, or retail diversion, is the most common way for legal firearms to end up on the black market.

For many years, the police had believed most firearms in criminal hands were stolen from legitimate gun owners.

This point frustrated some in the firearms community, who said there was little data to back up the claim and instead believed that organised crime groups smuggled guns from overseas.

But analysis of four years’ worth of retail records – 250,000 sales – by the recently established Firearms Investigations Team revealed that “straw buyers” were a much bigger problem than first thought.

Previously under the Arms Act, retailers had to keep records of gun sales but owners wanting to privately sell their firearms did not.

The only legal obligation on sellers was to look at the prospective buyer’s firearms licence. There was no requirement to check whether the licence was valid, or even keep a record of the buyer’s details.

The loophole, which has now closed in a law change that came into force with a national firearms register this week – made it easy for guns to end up in criminal hands.

“It’s very, very simple,” Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Beal told the Herald on Sunday in a previous interview.

The officer in charge of the NOCG specialist firearms squadsaid the bulk of guns recovered by police can be traced back to a legitimate retail sale – rather than stolen or smuggled – which had been diverted to unlicensed individuals.

“There’s a lot of rumours around where gangs get their guns from: importing them in bulk by sea, manufacturing them, burglaries and so on,” said Beal.

“But the vast majority of what we’re seeing so far [appears to be] retail diversion. The criminal element doesn’t need to look any further, importing etc, because diversion is such a simple option.”

Another example of how firearms ended up in criminal hands was Operation Carbine.

As a former member of the Hells Angels with a serious criminal history, Kishor Chandra Singh did not have a licence to own firearms.

But he enlisted the help of three men in the Hawke’s Bay to legally buy 21 Alfa Carbine rifles, as well as ammunition, from the Gun City store in Napier.

On top of the retail cost of $47,000 for the guns and ammunition, Singh paid the “straw buyers” $500 for each Alfa Carbine bought on his behalf.

He then sold those firearms to members of the Mongrel Mob.

Some of the guns were also delivered to Auckland during the gang war between the Killer Beez and the Tribesmen last year.

With the “straw buyer” pipeline likely to be squeezed by the introduction of a national firearms register, which went live yesterday – as well as requiring records to now be kept for private sales – police expect organised crime will explore other avenues to find firepower.

That could lead to gun-smuggling by sea, or manufacture (either by 3D printers or assembly of imported parts), targeted burglaries of gun owners or “smash-and-grab” ram raids on dealers.

There is also the likelihood of “guns for hire”, literally, where licence holders retain physical possession of their firearms but rent them to criminals.

“The key for police is to make sure that we keep everyone’s details really secure, so the firearms community isn’t targeted,” said Superintendent Richard Wilson, referring to concerns the national register could fall into the wrong hands. “Because the pressure will come on.”

The stricter regulations and focus on the illegal supply of firearms will take time to bear fruit.

As well as the firepower already in the black market, an unknown number of “grey market” firearms are in New Zealand.

These are firearms purchased by gun licence holders, which were then banned after the Aramoana massacre and the Christchurch terror attack, but not handed over during the government buy-back period.

No one knows how many exist but gun lobby groups estimated there could be hundreds of thousands, which could then enter the black market.

Beal and Wilson had previously urged anyone thinking of diverting firearms, either for money or a favour to a friend, to think about the unintended consequences.

While firearms are mostly used for genuine purposes in New Zealand, such as pest control or hunting to put food on the table, the police officers said society has changed dramatically in recent years.

Conflict between rival gangs had caused a great deal of harm to communities, but firearms were also a risk in family abuse, as well as mass shootings driven by racist or political ideology.

“Our message is that people need to trust the system and there are reasons why the police decline a firearms licence which [anyone considering diversion] might not know about,” Beal said.

“Once someone diverts a firearm, they’ve got absolutely no idea where it’s going to end up. No one wants to have on their conscience the fact that a firearm they sold ended up contributing to a tragedy.”

Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland.