BOY SAYS HE BOUGHT FROM GANG

Christchurch: A 15-year-old boy has admitted he was a regular cannabis
customer at the Mongrel Mob's fortified Christ-church headquarters.

The youth, who cannot be named because of his age, was caught when he went
to the gang's headquarters in Waltham suburb while police were keeping it
under 24-hour covert surveillance as part of the Operation Crusade
investigation into the gang's alleged illicit activities.

Now aged 17, he was called as a witness in the police's prosecution of 18
people accused of taking part in the gang's drug-dealing and gun-hoarding
activities.

In the dock are Lisa Marie Howie, Joseph Robert Wiringi, Brent Douglas
Stanley Rowe, Leon Delshannon Turner, Tolouli Tuatua, Rota Beattie, Alesha
Tara Burberry, Pamela Wendy Bush, Peter Gilbert, Whata August Keefe,
Hinemoana Keen, Wayne Pohutuhutu, Martin Henry Reuben, Richard James Rymer,
Pihama Tauroa, Shane Te Whata, Tamiana Maaria Nathan, and Mark Quentin Waitere.

The teenager told the High Court at Christchurch yesterday he had bought
cannabis from the gang's headquarters on three or four occasions before his
visit on April 16 last year.

"I pressed the buzzer on the mailbox then went up to the door, where I was
told to put the money in the hole," he said.

"I put in $40 and I got two tinnies. I put them in my pocket and left."

Soon afterwards, he was stopped by police and found with the cannabis
tinnies. He was charged with procuring cannabis, referred to Youth Aid, and
eventually put on a good behaviour bond by the courts.

- - NZPA