Mongrel Mob rehab funding likened to money laundering
Police officers are questioning why they should bother cracking down on gangs when it's emerged that money taken from criminals is funding a Mongrel Mob-led rehab programme, the Police Association says.
Association President Chris Cahill said on Thursday he's
been contacted by officers riled by revelations this week that nearly $3
million seized from criminals by police is now being used to fund the Mongrel
Mob's Kahukura drug and rehabilitation scheme.
He says one officer has "likened it to the most
successful money laundering scheme".
It was revealed this week that the Ministry of Health
supported the Kahukura proposal to receive funding under the Proceeds of Crime,
a fund made up of cash seized from criminals.
The funding of $2.75 million over four years was signed off
by a group of ministers, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who said she
was "comfortable" doing so as it was supported by local officers.
But according to Cahill, officers he has spoken to aren't
happy and are now asking why they should bother making "the huge
commitment and taking the risks they do to bring to account gangs who are
armed, dangerous, and dealing meth on a massive scale, when the money is just
going to go back to the gangs".
"One officer likened it to the most successful money
laundering scheme he'd heard. Police take $2m of dirty money - as they recently
did from the Notorious chapter of the Mongrel Mob in Operation Dusk in Hawke’s
Bay - and the Government returns $2.75m in clean money to people so closely
linked to the same gang," Cahill said.
"Association members are clearly angry that Police
hierarchy and the Ministry of Health consider a gang such as Notorious Mongrel
Mob, which is responsible for the majority of meth dealing in central Hawke’s
Bay, should now be trusted stewards of millions of dollars to fix a problem
they are instrumental in creating."
Ardern rejected the claim of money laundering and said on
Thursday the programme was about addressing meth addiction and reducing
criminality related to that.
"It is, ultimately, a programme that was supported by
local police. Really encourage the local police association to make contact
with local police if they have a different view than them," she said.
But National's Police spokesperson Simeon Brown agrees with
the comparison to a money laundering scheme.
"There is clearly outrage and anger amongst police
officers who feel giving taxpayer money to an organised criminal group such as
the Mongrel Mob is directly oppose to the work they are doing trying to combat
organised crime."
He said funds from the Proceeds of Crime shouldn't go to
gangs, but to organisations like the Salvation Army "who has a proven
track record of helping people get help for their addictions".
Ardern told reporters on Monday that the scheme "was
not just brought forward by the Ministry of Health - it was supported by
Corrections, police, [Ministry of Social Development], and the local Hawke's
Bay police".
"They, of course, would know more of the programme
because it was trialled for a short period in 2020 and I place weight on the
local police officers' views."
She said the scheme is based on a programme that was run
back in 2010 as part of the previous National-led Government's Meth Action Plan
and that criticism from opposition parties was just "politics".
"It does look pretty obviously like a political
manoeuvre when you have a programme from 2010 of a very similar nature funded
and supported and now we see National in Opposition taking a very different
view," Ardern said.
"Our position is, fund what works - fund what makes a
difference. We know we have to address methamphetamine as a scourge in New
Zealand."
Brown, however, has said the previous government made sure
"the funding went through appropriate organisations".
"If you look at what we did, those programmes were
alongside organisations like the Salvation Army, which were the lead
organisations. They were the ones making sure the money was being spent
appropriately and there was accountability."
Cahill said the association wasn't criticising drug rehab
schemes.
"We know only too well the crisis that exists in this
area. Our members are left to cope every single day with people who need
assistance and rehabilitation from drug use. New Zealand is so short on rehab
resources that it falls to officers to do the caring, often in police cells,
which are no place for a person who requires expert medical help," he
says.
"It is difficult to understand how those who promote
the need for drug rehabilitation seem blind to the dreadful optics of this
Mongrel Mob scenario - let alone have faith in this multi-million-dollar scheme
to do anything but line the pockets of key gang leaders."
He wants the money funnelled to "legitimate addiction
services" in provincial New Zealand and for the Police organisation to
listen more closely to staff about how the Mongrel Mob operates.
Ministry of Health Deputy Director-General Mental Health and
Addiction Toni Gutschlag told Newshub drug use is prevalent among gangs across
New Zealand and can have a "detrimental impact" on the wider
community.
"It is understood that if gang members can be supported
in stopping the use and sale of drugs, that also has positive impacts on the
wider community."
She said the Ministry of Health received a request from H2R
(Hard to Reach) - a research and consulting group formed to support the
mobilisation of hard to reach communities - with the intention to work with the
collective of Mongrel Mob chapters.
"When assessing the request for support from H2R, the
ministry acknowledged that there was a gap in current service provision,"
said Gutschlag."The initiative provided a way to fill this gap, engaging
with a hard-to-reach segment of the community."
The Mongrel Mob-led initiative is a live-in mārae-based
programme which aims to address trauma and drug-seeking behaviour. A previous
edition of the Kahukura programme ran independent of the Ministry of Health
from September to November last year.
"This is a programme that has run for a short period
back in 2020 and the outcomes of that suggested higher compliance with court
orders, it suggested that people were passing their drug tests, and it showed
signs of success," Ardern said.
Off the back of this week's revelations, Brown has announced
he will be introducing a Member's Bill requiring officials to ensure public
money isn't "used directly or indirectly for the purposes of making
payments to gangs".
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