by Selwyn Manning

Gang networks in west and south Auckland are so established that police intelligence investigations have had little affect in arresting the rise of organised drug crimes.

The so called biker gangs are moving in on the Ecstasy drug traffic market after having established the monopoly of LSD and Speed trafficking. Ecstasy has largely been imported by white colour drug dealers for the predominantly middle and upper class drug takers and distributed through the nightclub scene in Auckland.

But the control of the drug’s distribution is shifting to the biker gangs.

The Hells Angels and Highway 61 already control the dealing of metamphetimines and LSD and police intelligence into the drug world suggests an increasing proportion of these drugs are now manufactured in New Zealand laboratories.

The ethnic based Mongrel Mob and Black Power gangs have a long established history of dealing in cannabis.

Police say the biker gangs and the ethnic gangs are forming alliances between themselves to improve their drug distribution networks throughout New Zealand and Australia.

But the rise in organised drug trafficking within the gang networks has pre-empted warnings from Police Association President Greg O'Connor.

He says police have not kept pace with the gangs and that more resources and co-ordinated strategies are needed.

Police Commissioner Peter Doone says additional resources, including 500 extra frontline staff, have been introduced to combat the problem over the past three years. He says more officers are destined for west Auckland to assist in the rising crime rate there.

Mr Doone denied that money set aside to combat gangs was used to fund development on the controvercial INSIS computer. However, Labour’s justice spokesperson, Phil Goff, has just accused the Police Commissioner in Parliament of lying. He has tabled a document which he says shows that this is not the case.

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