Gangland-style shootouts, arson attacks, assaults and drive-by shootings.

A campaign of violence and intimidation was allegedly used to propel the meteoric rise to power in the Bay of Plenty region of a gang that only became established in New Zealand in 2019, a High Court jury has been told.

Nine senior members of the Mongols are on trial in Hamilton, on a raft of drugs and weapons charges. It is one of biggest criminal trials in recent New Zealand history, and comes more than two years after police swooped on the gang.

Operation Silk, as it was called, resulted in the arrest of the entire senior hierarchy of the gang on a raft of drugs and weapons charges.

Nine defendants, including senior members of the Mongols Gang, are standing trial in the High Court in Hamilton. Photo: NZ Police.

At the time of the arrests in June 2020, police said a gang war was brewing in the Bay of Plenty region, with numerous groups battling for the lion's share of the drug market there.

Among those on trial is the Mongols' national president, Jim David Thacker, who is charged alongside gang members Hone Ronaki, Leon Huritu, Jason Ross, Kelly Petrowski, Matthew Ramsden, Kane Ronaki, Te Reneti Tarau, and another man who has interim name suppression.

The trial's third day on Thursday got under way with Crown prosecutors Justine Sutton and Anna Pollett making an opening address to the jury, in which they outlined the case against the nine defendants.

Leon Huritu, aka Wolf, was the gang's Sergeant-at-Arms, and a staunch defender of the Mongol's recently-acquired territory. Photo: Stuff.

For the most part it was effectively an introduction to a cast of characters – and the central character was Thacker, who is also known variously as JD, Jack Daniels, The cap, or El Presidente.

Thacker had been the president of a gang called The Bandidos in Australia. In September 2018 he arrived in New Zealand, and set about establishing a chapter of the gang in this country. However, there were ructions in that gang and Thacker was depatched.

He opted to move on and form the first Mongols chapter in New Zealand in early 2019, and appointed himself as president.

The Mongols are one of the world's most feared bikie gangs since the 1960s, but only became established in New Zealand in 2019. Photo: Supplied/Stuff.

Based in the Bay of Plenty, the Mongols established goals for themselves of a very profitable methamphetamine supply chain for users in the Bay of Plenty and Christchurch – where a chapter was set up under the leadership of Ross – and putting established rival gangs The Mongrel Mob and the Greasy Dogs out of business.

Thacker also had the help of his close friend Hone Ronaki, another former Australian resident who became his right-hand man, and was also appointed national vice president.

Ronaki, however, was operating a 'side hustle” unbeknownst to Thacker, Pollett says. He was cutting and on-selling some of the gang's methamphetamine for his own profit.

An arsenal of Molotov cocktails were found during the culmination of the police operation to uncover evidence of the Mongols' misdeeds. Photo: NZ Police.

Pollett also detailed a series of 'tit-for-tat” incidents that took place as the Mongols asserted their dominance in the Bay of Plenty.

These included an arson attack on a barber shop called Bladed and Faded, owned by Thacker; a later drive-by shooting at a Mob property in Maungatapu; and a subsequent shootout at a rural property near Te Puke in early 2020 between members of the Mongrel Mob and the Mongols.

While Thacker had gone to great lengths to avoid 'getting his hands dirty” and thus keep himself off the police's radar, he had nonetheless ordered much of the violence himself.

The police surveillance culminated with a series of raids that uncovered weapons allegedly in the group's possession including AK47s – Soviet designed assault rifles – as well as military-style semi-automatic (MSSA) firearms including a Bushmaster XM15-E2S, a pistol grip pump action shotgun, Molotov cocktails and a homemade bomb.

Some of the firearms allegedly seized from the Mongols gang on June 23, 2020, as part of Operation Silk. Photo: NZ Police.

The group used sophisticated $3000 cypher-phones they called 'tings” in a bid to talk without the police being able to intercept their communications. Nonetheless, the police managed to intercept many calls and also obtained a special warrant to place listening devices in Thacker's home, as well as warrants for covert cameras.

Central to the police case was information from one of the gang members' former comrades – who is not standing trial and has name suppression – but will be taking the stand later in the trial as a Crown witness.

Other main characters introduced by the prosecutors included Huritu – aka Wolf – the gang's national Sergeant-at-Arms and a staunch 'defender of the club”; the currently-suppressed defendant who, based in Auckland, allegedly held a critical role in sourcing the methamphetamine for the gang; and Petrowski – aka Rhino – a Hawke's Bay-based member who was involved in some of the violence.

Kelly Petrowski, aka Rhino, looked after the Mongols affairs in Hawkes' Bay. Photo: Stuff.

The gang liked to flaunt their new-found affluence, Pollett says, and their purchases included a small fleet of cars.

Other purchases included patches made by top fashion firms Louis Vuitton and Gucci. In one occasion $19,000 in cash was spent on Louis Vuitton bags and clothes, and Thacker also splurged $2300 on nine pairs of Nike shoes.

Bill Nabney, who is counsel for Thacker and Huritu, also gave a brief opening in which he advised jurors to not automatically infer Thacker had knowledge and oversight of all aspects of his gang's operation.

'Just because someone is in charge does not mean they can see everything ... Don't leap down a rabbit hole [and assume] Mr Thacker is in charge of everything.”

Likewise, the police raids had not uncovered substantial amounts of drugs, he says.

'They have done a search, where are the drugs?”

The trial, before Justice Melanie Harland and a jury of seven men and five women, has been set down for 10 weeks. The nine defendants are facing a total 118 charges and there are 241 Crown witnesses.

-Stuff/Mike Mather.