“Dax” Hohepa Ngakuru | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1980 Rotorua, Rotorua Lakes District, New Zealand |
| Occupation | Outlaw biker |
| Known for | National president of the Comanchero |
| Predecessor | Mick Hawi |
| Successor | Mark Buddle |
| Allegiance | Comanchero MC |
Duax "Dax" Hohepa Ngakuru (born 1980) is a New Zealand outlaw biker and alleged gangster.
Ngakuru was born in Rotorua, but grew up in Sydney. [1] He went to high school along with his alleged conspirator Hakan “Big Hux” Ayik. [2] He joined the Comanchero Motorcycle Club and rose up during the presidency of Mick Hawi. [1] He uses various aliases such as the Negotiator, Bullseye, Chuck Norris and El Mito (The Myth). [1] In 2009 after Hawi's arrest on charges of first degree murder, Ngakuru became the new "supreme commander" of the Comanchero. [3] On 29 December 2010, a tattoo parlor owned by Ngakuru in Coogee was bombed. [4] At the time, the Comanchero were involved in a dispute with the Notorious Motorcycle Club and the bombing of Ngakuru's tattoo shop was believed to be related to the dispute. [5] The dispute started in the spring of 2010 when the Comanchero kidnapped a Notorious drug dealer and forced him to reveal where a slash of Chinese heroin was hidden, which the Comanchero took for themselves. [6] As the heroin from China was worth $25 million Australian dollars, the loss was a sizable one to the Notorious gang, which started the biker war. [6]
In 2011, he fled Australia to Turkey, where he settled in self-imposed exile. [1] After his flight, Mark Buddle replaced him as the Comanchero national president. [3] The New Zealand Herald reported in 2023 about Ngakuru: "He’s accused of being behind some of the world’s biggest drug deals and is reportedly controlling business from Turkey, with an estimated wealth of more than $100 million". [1] In 2021, it was revealed that Ngakuru was sending texts on the ANOM messaging service that, unbeknownst to him, were being read by the police in Australia and New Zealand. [7] In one of his texts, Ngakuru wrote that he had such "power and influence" in Turkey that he felt he was immune to arrest. [7] In another text, Ngakuru wrote that he felt he was “being able to get away with murder”. [7]
Unbeknownst to Ngakuru the ANOM encrypted messaging service he used was owned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and all of his texts were read by the FBI. [8] The FBI secretly purchased control of the ANOM messaging platform and installed a "backdoor" on the app that allowed the FBI to read millions of supposedly secure encrypted texts in Operation Trojan Shield. [9] Using information gained by the ANOM texts, the New Zealand police launched Operation Spyglass in 2021 that led to the seizure of 9 kilograms of methamphetamine plus four guns, 14 vehicles and motorbikes, a large amount of cannabis and more than $1 million New Zealand dollars in cash.. [8] After Mark Buddle was extradited from Turkey to Australia in August 2022, Ngakuru was reported to have resumed his role as the Comanchero "supreme commander". [2] In October 2022, Ngakuru's cousin, Shane Ngakuru was arrested in Thailand on charges of being a "super-facilitator" between the Comanchero and the Asian crime syndicates in Southeast Asia. [10] A New Zealand police report defined the term as "A super-facilitator has links to a global network of manufacturers and supply and distribution chains to successfully import methamphetamine to New Zealand. The super-facilitator is usually based offshore and is never in direct contact with the shipment." [10]
In January 2023, he was arrested in Turkey and it was reported that Turkish authorities were in talks for Ngakuru's possible extradition to Australia or New Zealand. [1] At the time of his arrest, a series of photographs were released which showed Ngakuru having dinner in a posh Istanbul restaurant with Hawi and Ayik. [1] Another photograph showed Ngakuru on a luxury yacht in the Bosporus under a giant Turkish flag. [1] Together with Hakan Ayik, Ngakuru was alleged to have run from Istanbul a crime empire that was active in the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea and Hong Kong. [11] At the time of his arrest, Ngakuru was living in a villa in the Sarıyer district of Istanbul. [12]