Pubdate: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand) Copyright: 2003 New Zealand Herald Contact: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300 Authors: Phil Taylor and Bridget Carter Note: Readers may sign up to obtain news items as single items by email for these specific areas and/or topics: Australia, Canada, Latin America, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States and/or Marijuana News. Details at http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#news Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/New+Zealand DOPE HOUSES LOW ON POLICE HIT-LIST Tinny houses like the one where Michael Heremaia was stabbed more than 20 times are not a high priority for the police. But they are bread and butter for the gangs, which can make thousands of dollars a day from them. The houses run themselves using gang prospects, or the gangs demand "tax" from independent operators, who face the prospect of violence if they don't pay. No one believes Heremaia's murder will be a wake-up call. Another house will be found and more gang wannabes put to work. The one in which Heremaia was killed operated for about a year from a prefabricated 1960s house at the bottom of Appleby Place. It was run by the King Cobra gang, which recruits from the Pacific Islands communities. The gang emerged about 30 years ago in Ponsonby, before gentrification pushed up prices and forced members to suburbs in the south and west of Auckland. Heremaia lived at the Appleby Place house. He is described by police as a King Cobra prospect, and as loveable but unmanageable by his family. He may have seen the tinny house as his entree to the gang. A King Cobra source confirmed that Heremaia lived at the house but said the gang was more interested in a 19-year-old relative as a prospective member. It was the relative - who was not there during the knife fight which killed Heremaia and left a 26-year-old injured - who ran the tinny shop. The gang source told the Weekend Herald the house, rented by King Cobra members, was in the process of being dropped and another found, but Heremaia and his relative were allowed to stay on. "They had girlfriends and didn't feel comfortable about going home. The house was offered for them to live in and the rent continued to be paid." A day after the murder, the landlord got a call from one of the men who rented the property telling him they no longer wanted it. "It's a high-risk business," says the King Cobra source, "you have to keep on the move." He says the gang has five tinny houses across its patch, which he identified as Grey Lynn, Mt Eden, Mt Roskill and Papatoetoe, Mangere Bridge and Onehunga. He says Papakura is a Mongrel Mob area, and Black Power has about 20 tinny houses across the city. Ounces of cannabis are sold for $250 to $350, and busy operations can sell six ounces, producing a daily income of $1500 to $2100. An average weekly "tax", according to the source, is $500. The busiest and one of the longest-running tinny houses is in Otahuhu and referred to by those in the scene as "the marae". Detective Sergeant Pete Jones, who headed a recent raid on it, says people connected to it had told police it brought in up to $15,000 a day. This tinny house demonstrates the problem of stamping them out. It had been running for at least five years. Police knew about it and had raided it several times. "It's the old story," says Jones. "It was making so much money they would accept losing a couple of guys, some drugs and some money and just open up again within days with someone else in there." The Otahuhu drug shop was unique in terms of the money it took and its operation. Two houses were used. One, which faced the street, was owned by the gang. Drugs and money were kept there but the house behind it, rented by the gang, was the known tinny house where the deals were done. Close to motorway access, it was easily reached by people from a wide area of the city. "It got to the stage there was traffic backed up and blocking the road, they were selling that much," says Jones. The clientele was broad: truck drivers, labourers, schoolgirls. "Some of my guys tipped out a bunch of girls from Dio [Diocesan School for Girls]," says Jones. Tinny houses traditionally sell small amounts of cannabis - enough for a few joints - wrapped in tinfoil, hence their name. But police believe a variety of drugs may be available through them. Jones suspects they take orders for drugs such as P (pure methamphetamine) and Ecstasy and arrange to deliver them elsewhere. That was because drug dealers knew police would make the houses a higher priority if they were outlets for harder drugs. The King Cobra source agrees. "Our gang policy is that we do not sell meth. That is why the cops leave us alone." But he says the rapid growth in the use of P - a drug associated with some of the most violent crimes - is denting demand for cannabis. Burglary and car thefts take precedence for police. This is dictated by Parliament, reacting to the concerns of voters. "We've been ignoring drugs for years," a police source told the Weekend Herald. Police had been receiving information constantly about gangs' drug activities but other work was given higher priority. The Auckland drug squad does not police tinny houses, instead concentrating on drug importation and manufacture. The focus is on volume crimes such as burglaries, property theft, fraud, areas where clearance statistics are not good, the police source says. What isn't appreciated, he says, is that such crimes are connected. "Guys are stealing property and anything they can get their hands on from cars, and a lot of that property is going to tinny houses to buy drugs." Police spokesman Jon Neilson said that although tinny houses were not targeted, they were dealt with as police became aware of them. The officer heading the inquiry into the murder of Heremaia, Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Hallett, said police had not been aware of the tinny house where he was murdered. The King Cobra member has no doubt young people like Heremaia will continue to do the gang's dirty work, lured by the prospect of membership. Most of the kids in tinny houses can't read or write, he says. "They join because they have no other hope. They can't fit into society. Being in a gang means you can be in a $10 million company." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake