The Star: October 05, 2017

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Thursday October 5 2017 29
Local
News
Now
Fire rages, homes at risk
in a bid to stop their long reach
“It’s one way of trying to get
around the asset forfeiture laws.’’
In spite of the leading gang
member’s lengthy criminal
history – including previous
convictions for
methamphetamine
manufacture
– O’Carroll was
released on bail to a
different address.
David
Gerrard
O’Carroll
Six months
later, police found
another $1 million
cash at the second
address.
There was $900,000 hidden
in a bed frame, the balance in
a wardrobe. Detectives also
returned to the other property
where he was first arrested.
There, a cache of 14 stolen firearms
and thousands of rounds
of ammunition were discovered
in a secret bunker under the
kitchen.
“I must have walked over it 20
times before we found it,” Detective
Sergeant John Sowter said
last year.
“It was hidden under a tile in
the floor. The grouting must have
been replaced every time they
went in there.”
PATCHED: The Head Hunters Christchurch headquarters in
Vickerys Rd, Wigram.
PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER
A dozen of the weapons,
mainly shotguns, were traced
to a burglary of a gun collector
in the fashionable Auckland
suburb of Bucklands Beach a few
months earlier.
O’Carroll is now serving 16
years and five months in prison
after being found guilty of cooking
about 2kg of the Class-A
drug.
The jury was unaware the
man in the dock was one of the
most senior members of the East
Chapter of the Head Hunters.
“It seems ironic that O’Carroll
is proud as punch to don his
patch, flash his tattoos and ride
his Harley around town with all
his other criminal mates,” said
Detective Sergeant Sowter.
“But when it comes to court he
cowers away from his involvement
with the gang.”
SINISTER: A cache of 14
stolen firearms and thousands
of rounds of ammunition were
discovered in a secret bunker.
Following Genoa was Operation
Easter.
Police were told members of
the Head Hunters’ East Chapter
in Auckland were running a P
lab in Northland.
Investigating the tip in Waiotira,
in rural Northland, without
tipping off the targets, posed its
own unique challenges.
“It’s a small rural community,
everybody knows everybody,”
said Detective Senior Sergeant
Lloyd Schmid earlier this year.
“We needed to be careful how
we moved in that community,
who we might ask for assistance
and the ongoing maintenance
issue looking after our equipment.”
By equipment, Schmid means
two covert motion-activated
cameras which captured who
was coming and going.
Nearly every day, over the
course of the five-month inquiry,
Schmid said there was a strict
routine.
The P cooks would arrive
around 7am and work until
lunchtime, have a short break,
then keep working until around
6pm.
“In terms of how they went
about their business, I could
only describe that as very regimented,”
said Detective Senior
Sergeant Schmid.
“In my career, I would say this
is one of the most professionally
run clan labs I have seen.”
The entire house was stripped
bare to house the chemicals and
lab equipment needed to cook
massive amounts of the Class-A
drug. •Turn to page 30
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