Issue 20 | August 13,2012 | critic.co.nz

NEWs
By Bella Macdonald
The Mongrel Mob are due for a stern
slap on the wrist after being accused
of having their fingers in too many
pies. Police allege that Mongrel Mob members
obtained money from a government funded
anti-violence program, run through the Whanau
Ora scheme, and used it to buy cannabis.
Over a four-month period earlier this year
a Police investigation intercepted phone calls
and text messages from 10 men, who were subsequently
arrested. Five of the men are patched
Mongrel Mob members, and one is a gang associate.
The parties allegedly used $20,000 from
the We Against Violence Trust to buy and traffic
drugs from the North Island to the South Island.
Four of the arrested men have been charged with
conspiracy to sell, and four have been charged
with dishonestly converting the trust’s money.
In the series of messages and phone calls,
one man said that he “had it sorted, as he was
going to use the Whanau Ora money” and that he
08
MONGREL MOB ABUSE PUBLIC’S TRUST
intended to “come straight back south”. The next
day, $10,200 was transferred from the trust’s
bank account into the personal bank account
of one of the accused. Police intervened in March,
apprehending three of the accused on the Cook
Strait ferry. A subsequent search of the accused’s
van produced 3.15kg of cannabis with a street
value of $24,500.
On August 1 in the Dunedin District Court,
26-year-old Mongrel Mob member Michael
Logan Wong-Tong admitted to putting his tong
in the wong account, pleading guilty to a joint
charge of conspiracy to sell cannabis. He will be
sentenced on October 7.
The We Against Violence Trust, founded in
2001, was given money by Whanau Ora, a taxpayer-funded
program that aims to “establish
regional panels to ensure it contributes in positive
and realistic ways to local communities”.
The Trust has a $45,000 contract with Whanau
Ora to work on community support and reducing
inter-whanau violence.
Minister of Maori Affairs and Minister of
critic.co.nz
Whanau Ora Tariana Turia expressed delight at
the progress of the We Against Violence Trust in
May, before Police revealed information about
the investigation. Turia told the ODT, “My understanding
is they’ve done some excellent work
in the area of whanau violence and getting rid
of P [methamphetamine].”
It is still unclear how the accused gained
access to the funds. Dunedin police involved
in the investigation were unable to comment
further, as the case is still before the courts.
Critic suggests that defence counsel run
the argument that fostering an increase in
marijuana consumption was in fact part of the
Trust’s grand plan to steer people away from
violence and towards more edifying activities
such as watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force and
eating GrainWaves. This defence has a reasonable
likelihood of convincing a jury, given the
precedent set by David Bain’s successful use of
the “newspaper run” defence.