Crown seeks to forfeit the Mongrel Mob gang headquarters in Mataura, Southland—the site of multiple extended and brutal beatings.
Legal representatives have filed a forfeiture application targeting the gang’s Mataura base on Albion Street, along with a nearby adjoining property, collectively valued at $347,000 for rating purposes.
Between January and November 2022, the Mataura pad witnessed several severe assaults. Police submissions indicate that victims were assaulted at the pad or at their homes before being abducted back to the property. Once inside, gates were shut, and victims were presented under the Mongrel Mob insignia before enduring prolonged, serious violence as part of internal gang discipline.
The violence stemmed from an internal Mongrel Mob feud, which sparked a wave of crimes in 2022, including drive-by shootings and severe assaults that left individuals critically injured.
Operation Pakari, the police response to the violence, led to six gang members being charged, with prison terms ranging from three years and four months to six years.
Among those charged was Turoirangi Atarea Harmer-Elers, described as the Mataura Mongrel Mob chapter president. He is serving three years and four months for kidnapping and assault with intent to injure, connected to a brutal beating of a gang member at the Mataura pad on August 9, 2022. Although Harmer-Elers wasn’t at the pad during the assault, prosecutors argued that he ordered it.
Justice Christine Gordon, who sentenced Harmer-Elers, noted the attack occurred within the context of internal Mongrel Mob discipline. A victim was abducted from an Invercargill home, driven to the Mataura property, struck head-first against concrete, and then taken to Harmer-Elers’ residence to demonstrate compliance with orders before being dropped at Gore Hospital. The injuries included a collapsed lung, a fractured eye socket, and broken ribs, with the ordeal lasting about two hours from abduction to hospital arrival.
A restraining order was first issued in March 2024, targeting the Albion Street properties in the name of Bill Elers—Harmer-Elers’ father and former Mob chapter president. Around the same time, another Mataura property linked to Harmer-Elers, along with two classic 1950s Ford Customline cars, were placed under restraining orders.
The subsequent forfeiture application was filed under the Sentencing Act just before Harmer-Elers’ High Court sentencing in Invercargill, September that year. Because the filing occurred late, it wasn’t addressed on the same day, and judges asked for future submissions. Crown counsel argued that the court retained jurisdiction to hear the forfeiture matter, a point upheld by Justice Gordon.
A ruling on the forfeiture request will come at a later date.
Officials previously described the Albion Street site as a fortified, well-established hub intended to shield the gang’s activities from public view and police observation, and as a focal point for planning and enabling serious criminal activity.
This report originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.
