Comancheros president charged with prison attack alongside other gang members

Three senior Comanchero Motorcyle Club gang members have been charged with assaulting a fellow prisoner while in remand.

Comancheros New Zealand chapter president Pasilika Naufahu, vice-president Tyson Daniels and Jarome Fonua have all been charged and were set to appear via audio visual-link in the Auckland District Court.

Court documents that were filed on Monday and seen by Stuff show the trio are jointly charged with assaulting a prisoner on November 16 at Mt Eden Prison.

The trio will not appear in court until May.
Last April, all three gang members were arrested, along with six other co-accused, following a series of raids across Auckland.

It saw more than $3.7 million in assets seized along with luxury cars, motorcycles, luggage and jewellery.

The defendants are charged with a raft of charges including money laundering, unlawful possession of firearms, conspiring to deal methamphetamine, conspiring to import a class A and class B drug and participating in an organised crime Group.

Naufahu is facing seven charges of money laundering, conspiring to import methamphetamine, conspiring to deal a class B drug, possession of a firearm, possession of explosives and participating in an organised crime group.

Earlier this year Daniels was sentenced to four years and eight months imprisonment after pleading guilty to nine counts of money laundering and participating in an organised criminal group.

Lawyer Andrew Simpson was also jailed for two years and nine months after admitting laundering $2.2 million for the gang.

At sentencing Justice Gerard van Bohemen said Simpson was the "key facilitator" in laundering the money to avoid detection.
"You made it work for the funds to flow."

Fonua and Naufahu are set to go to trial in September 2020 at the High Court at Auckland.

COMANCHERO FACTS
- The Comanchero Motorcycle Club was formed by William George "Jock" Ross, a Scottish immigrant, in Sydney in 1968
- Ross chose the name after seeing the John Wayne film The Comancheros
- In 1982, a second chapter was formed by Anthony Mark "Snoddy" Spencer. When visiting the United States, Spencer met members of the Texan motorcycle club, the Bandidos, and the two gangs became allies
- The Bandidos eventually patched-over the second Comanchero chapter to become the Bandidos' first Australian chapter
- The Comanchero and Bandidos are now rivals and, in 1984, the two clubs were involved in the Milperra massacre in Sydney, a shoot-out which left seven people dead, including four Comancheros, two Bandidos, and a 14-year-old bystander.


Australia - BNN.