A New Zealand-born bikie gang boss alleged to be masterminding a global drug empire from Turkey has become the new “Supreme Commander” of the now worldwide Comanchero motorcycle club.
Duax “Dax” Hohepa Ngakuru was born in Rotorua but grew up in Sydney where he rose through the ranks of the Comancheros during violent turf wars with ruthless rival gangs.
Now, he has taken over from his close associate Mark Buddle, the Daily Telegraph reports, who was hunted down and deported back to Australia last year, to the top of the feared gang.
Ngakuru, 43, also goes by several aliases, including Negotiator, Bullseye, Chuck Norris and El Mito (The Myth).
He’s accused of being behind some of the world’s biggest drug deals and is reportedly controlling business from Turkey, with a wealth estimated to be in excess of $100 million.
Senior New Zealand police officers have been in talks with Turkish counterparts, trying to get them to send the gang kingpin back to his homeland to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.
The Daily Telegraph has obtained the first known images of Ngakuru in 10 years, showing him living abroad, with one photo showing him sprawled across the stern of a superyacht that is flying a large Turkish flag.
Another picture shows him with his wife Reynee in the back of a car, while another has Ngakuru at dinner with close friend Hakan “Big Hux” Ayik, the “Facebook gangster” who fled Sydney while on bail in 2010 and is also wanted by the FBI, and ex-gang president Mahmoud “Mick” Hawi who was shot dead by masked assassins in Sydney in 2018.
Ngakuru has been directing “senior members” of the Comancheros in both Dubai and Australia, a source told the Telegraph.
But after Buddle’s capture, when he was deported from Northern Cyprus to Turkey and then to Australia last August, it’s believed that Ngakuru may no longer feel Turkey is such a safe haven to operate from.
“Dax will be worried after what happened to Buddle because he is a New Zealand citizen whereas Hux is a Turk so he is probably safe,” one overseas underworld source told the Daily Telegraph.
“I think everyone thought you were safe in Turkey, but the attitude is changing there if you are not a citizen.”
Ngakuru’s cousin Shane Ellwood Ngakuru – himself alleged to be a high-ranking New Zealand member of the Comancheros – is currently facing deportation back to New Zealand on drug importation charges after being arrested in Thailand in October.
Shane Ngakuru is alleged to have been a key player in dealing encrypted phones which the FBI secretly controlled and eventually used to take down hundreds of organised crime figures around the world.
It’s alleged that Ngakuru was based in Thailand to act as a fixer, or “super-facilitator”, between the Comancheros and organised Asian crime syndicates.
Intelligence reports handed to NZ Police tell of transnational drug syndicates using super-facilitators to foster a successful methamphetamine supply chain.
“A super-facilitator has links to a global network of manufacturers and supply and distribution chains to successfully import methamphetamine to New Zealand,” says a police report, Methamphetamine in New Zealand: What is currently known about the harm it causes, which was circulated last year.
“The super-facilitator is usually based offshore and is never in direct contact with the shipment.”
