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Comancheros: Man who bought car for gang vice-president gets community detention

A man who admitted purchasing a $215,000 car on behalf of the vice-president of the Comancheros gang has been sentenced to six months of community detention.

Ron Junior Amani, previously admitted a money laundering charge in relation to the purchase of a Mercedes-Benz vehicle for Tyson Daniels.

Earlier on Wednesday, the gang’s “drug runner” Connor Michael Tamati Clausen was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for his part in a large-scale money laundering and drug operation.

Connor Clausen was sentenced on Wednesday.

Clausen was found guilty of conspiring to supply pseudoephedrine alongside gang president Pasilika Naufahu.

A woman, who has name suppression, was sentenced to 175 hours of community work after being found guilty of laundering nearly $300,000 for the Comancheros, which was used to purchase luxury cars.

Justice Graham Lang sentenced the trio at the High Court at Auckland on Wednesday.

They were arrested, along with 18 others, following a series of raids across Auckland in April 2019, in which more than $3.7 million in assets were seized along with luxury cars, motorcycles, luxury luggage and jewellery.

The police investigation was into the supply of controlled drugs from the New Zealand chapter of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club.

Clausen was also sentenced on firearms charges, including being in unlawful possession of a pistol and a pump action shotgun.

On Wednesday, Amani told the court he did not know Daniels was a gang member after they became friends at a gym.

He thought Daniels was a successful businessman, and was impressed by his wealth and the “flash cars” he drove, Amani said.

Comanchero vice-president Tyson Daniels and Andrew Simpson were jailed in February for their part in the operation.
Laine Moger/StuffComanchero vice-president Tyson Daniels and Andrew Simpson were jailed in February for their part in the operation.

In May 2019, a month after Daniels was arrested alongside other Comancheros, he asked Amani to put his name on the car’s sale and purchase agreement.

In hindsight, Amani said he should have asked Daniels where the funds had come from.

“It was me being dumb and foolish.”

Maria Pecotic asked Justice Lang to discharge her “naive” client without conviction.

“There is nothing to suggest he received any payment for this … or was involved in any gang,” Pecotic said.

But Crown prosecutor Emma Smith said Amani was seeking to minimise his involvement and his evidence about not knowing about Daniels’ lifestyle was not credible.

Gang president Pasilika Naufahu will be sentenced in 2021.
RICKY WILSON/STUFFGang president Pasilika Naufahu will be sentenced in 2021.

Justice Lang declined to discharge Amani without conviction, saying he must have appreciated the money was derived from criminal offending.

“The fact you were prepared to stand in as purchaser, placed a barrier in between the dealer and Mr Daniels … that was important as Mr Daniels had been arrested in April 2019 and would have been well aware police were investigating his movements closely,” Justice Lang said.

Justice Lang sentenced Amani to six months of community detention, subject to a curfew between 7pm and 7am, and ordered him not to communicate with any co-defendants or any members of the Comancheros.

Comanchero secretary Jarome Fonua was jailed in November.
DAVID WHITE/STUFFComanchero secretary Jarome Fonua was jailed in November.

Clausen was a ‘courier’

At trial, the Crown’s case was that Clausen was the one to deliver the money, inspect the pseudoephedrine and take it back to Naufahu, either to make methamphetamine or to simply on-sell it.

The Crown said Clausen must have been trusted by those higher up in the gang with a large amount of money.

A video, taken by police, was played at trial showing the brother of a man who the Crown said is at the “heart of the case” and an Australian hairdresser meeting with Clausen.

The hairdresser, He Sha, was jailed earlier this year after he admitted crossing the Tasman to sell pseudoephedrine in a failed $1 million deal.

However, “there was no exchange of drugs”, Clausen’s lawyer, Simon Lance, said.

“His role was fleeting.”

Clausen was simply the passenger and he wasn’t “too clued-up” about the deal, Lance told the court.

Justice Lang accepted Clausen’s role was as a “courier” or “runner”.

“Your obligation was to take the money to the scene and take the drugs,” the judge said.

Justice Lang gave Clausen discounts off his sentence because he was left with little family support after being deported from Australia and was “inevitably driven to the Comancheros” for friendship.

Cash drops

The woman, who faced one representative charge of laundering $292,496, was far more interested in taking “relatively easy money” than investigating where it was coming from, the Crown said at trial.

Numerous intercepted calls between a man, said to be the cash handler, and the woman were played at trial as well as videos of the pair entering various banks across Auckland.

Justice Graham Lang sentenced the trio at the High Court.
Lawrence Smith/StuffJustice Graham Lang sentenced the trio at the High Court.

“We are working tomorrow sweetheart,” the man says on one of the calls before asking her to bring her ID to the bank.

Justice Lang said the man persuaded the woman to assist with the cash drops on four occasions in 2018, during a time when she was “particularly vulnerable” and suffering from mental health issues.

She received about $2000 in cash for her efforts.

“It is no surprise the jury concluded that you should have suspected the funds came from unlawful sources and you elected to carry on regardless,” Justice Lang told her.

Naufahu and his brother, Vetekina, will be sentenced for their offending in 2021.

Earlier this year, Jarome Fonua, the gang’s secretary, lawyer Andrew Simpson and the gang’s vice-president Tyson Daniels, were all jailed after they admitted their part in the operation.

A media personality, who has name suppression, and accountant Wiwini Himi Hakaraia were originally charged, however, their charges were formally discharged partway through the trial.