This is smart, really smart…

Government plans to expand search warrants in crackdown on gang violence

…I was genuinely curious as to what Chippy and Kiri would do. Both are exceptionally smart and have a full grasp of the issues.

Politically this is smart, tactically this is smart, civil liberties wise this is smart.

What the Ministers are signalling very directly is to the gang fraternity themselves.

The changes in search warrants means that on the street, the Police don’t need to specifically have your name and suspicion that you have a gun to search you, they just need to suspect you are in a gang, this makes huge tactical changes on the ground in dealing with gang violence.

The new charge of drive by shootings to 5 years also sends a direct message to Gang members that their tricks of saying ‘it wasn’t me’ and the lack of a specific crime to use are all over and Police have very clear tools to use here.

On top of that, the ability to detain cash and vehicles makes life very tough for gang members.

This is a very surgical strike with powers and laws that are specifically aimed at the tit for tat gang violence.

It is enough to dampen down the current violence and alongside a new deal for the 501s to curtail more professional criminals coming to NZ and going straight into the gang war melee, so these are great steps and is a reminder of why Chippy is so bloody good.

Medium to long term however, we still have intense problems that theses laws simply won’t curtail.

The meth trade is a half billion dollar a year industry.

The domestic gangs have alpha gangs like King Cobras and Headhunters bringing in Triad sourced Meth through the airports and ports. They then pass the meth along to biker gangs like the Tribesman to deliver around to regional gangs like Black Power and Mongrel Mob to then sell.

That’s the current market dynamic.

The unpatched 501 syndicates however are sourcing their meth from South American Cartels  and are fighting turf wars with the KCs and Heads to try and gain Airport and Port access. They haven’t had as much success as they had hoped there and have turned to manipulating the KillerBees into a war with the Tribesman in an attempt to gain a delivery mechanism for importing Meth smuggled across the border. Patched 501s like the Mongols and Comancheros are attempting to become the new delivery supply lines for the unpatched syndicates.

This is what the gang war is over, Triad sourced meth or South American sourced Meth.

The fundamental challenge for Chippy with the exploding gang war is an in internal turf war inside Police over intelligence.

Currently the GCSB and SIS are intercepting communications between the 501s and their South American Cartel meth suppliers.

The NSA very much want any intel on the Cartels, so NZ is sending its intel up the chain of command, it’s not being sent down to local cops here to use against the 501s.

The current drift net approach by Police who have used 750 warrantless searches against the gangs over the last couple of months is a fishing expedition because Police have zero intel on who they should be pressuring.

Hipkins knows well the internal turf wars of various Bureaucracies and I think we will see the GCSB and SIS forced to share their intel with the Police Intelligence and Organised Crime units which in tern will give them far better tools to deal to the gangs.

Chippy and Kiri response is a Surgical Precision Gang Crackdown that makes life truly difficult on the street and should dampen down the recent violence, but the problems are vastly deeper and ensuring South American Cartels don’t see NZ as a legitimate target is all that matters.

What we need is a Serious Financial Crime Unit akin to the SFO who have enormous powers to investigate the financial structures Organised crime use. The 501s have to move a lot of money offshore each month, that’s their weakness.

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