A drugs and guns courier for the Mongols gang took his partner and kids with him for a combined methamphetamine delivery and family holiday to the South Island, a court has heard.

The man, who communicated with his gang colleagues on an encrypted phone under the code name 'Wheelman”, became an integral and trusted part of the gang's operation – until the first Covid lockdown in March 2020 brought his journeying to a screeching halt.

Nine senior members of the Mongols are on trial in the High Court in Hamilton, on a raft of drugs and weapons charges.

Following a covert surveillance operation, police arrested the entire senior hierarchy of the gang in June 2020.

At the time the 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, also known as JD, who is charged alongside gang members Hone 'H1” Ronaki, Leon 'Wolf” Huritu, Jason '666” Ross, Kelly 'Rhino” Petrowski, Matthew Ramsden, Kane Ronaki, Te Reneti Tarau, and another man who has interim name suppression.

The jury has this week been hearing evidence of 'Wheelman” – a gang insider-turned-Crown witness whose real identity has been suppressed by Justice Melanie Harland.

The witness, who is appearing in court via audio-visual link from another location, specialised in transporting drugs, guns and money to and from the Bay of Plenty.

'My business was strictly drive, pick up, deliver,” he told the jurors on Tuesday afternoon.

However, after a time, Thacker and Hone Ronaki also tasked him with 'cutting” the methamphetamine – replacing a portion of the drug with MSM, a white powder commonly used for pain relief for arthritis sufferers.

This allowed the packages he transported to be 'bulked up” and, as a result, increase the gang's profit margin.

'I was the only one trusted to cut it ... because I don't touch the shit.”

On one of the trips in January 2020 he took his partner and three children with him to visit relatives in Dunedin.

On the way there, he dropped off a 2kg package of methamphetamine to Ross, the gang's top man in the South Island.

The witness said he also delivered an additional two ounces to a person in Dunedin on behalf of Hone Ronaki, who unbeknown to Thacker was running a 'side hustle” for his own profit.

The jury were also played footage of an intercepted phone call between Hone Ronaki and 'Wheelman”, in which the latter spoke of how he 'caught up with the bros in Fake City” and was told in reply that 'I'll f...ing cash you up”.

Asked by Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett to elaborate, the witness explained that 'Fake City” was Christchurch.

On one run to supply drugs for the Christchurch chapter he was met halfway by a gang member he knew only as 'Irish” – 'a tall, skinny white fella” with a strong accent.

The meeting was a terse one, because Irish made Wheelman wait.

'He was 45 minutes to an hour late.”

The witness said he made the last of his regular trips to Christchurch in March 2020, not long before the country was placed in full lockdown following the initial Covid-19 outbreak.

'I could not do much driving after that, because the ferry was shut down,” he said.

That transportation job was memorable for other reasons also.

'Wolf was laughing at me because I pulled in with one headlight and I had 3kg [of methamphetamine] on me.”

The trial continues.

-Stuff/Mike Mather.