Duax "Dax" Hohepa Ngakuru (born 1980) is a New Zealand

outlaw biker An outlaw motorcycle club, known colloquially as a biker club or club (in Australia), is a motorcycle subculture generally centered on the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals that purpo ...

and alleged

gangster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''Organized crime, mob'' and the suffix ''wikt:-ster, -st ...

Comanchero national president

Ngakuru was born in

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. It is sited on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authorities of New Zea ...

, but grew up in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. He went to high school along with his alleged conspirator Hakan “Big Hux” Ayik. He joined the

Comanchero Motorcycle Club The Comanchero Motorcycle Club is an outlaw motorcycle gang in Australia and South East Asia and New Zealand . The Comancheros are participants in the United Motorcycle Council of NSW, which convened a conference in 2009 to address legislation ...

and rose up during the presidency of

Mick Hawi Mick Hawi (9 May 1980 – 14 February 2018) was a Lebanese-Australian outlaw biker and gangster who served as the second national president and "supreme commander" of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club. Early life Hawi was born in Beirut, Lebanon ...

. He uses various aliases such as the Negotiator, Bullseye, Chuck Norris and ''El Mito'' (The Myth). In 2009 after Hawi's arrest on charges of first degree murder, Ngakuru became the new "supreme commander" of the Comanchero. On 29 December 2010, a tattoo parlor owned by Ngakuru in Coogee was bombed. 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. 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. 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.

In exile

In 2011, he fled

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, where he settled in self-imposed exile. After his flight,

Mark Buddle Mark Douglas Buddle (born 1984) is an Australian outlaw biker, criminal and an alleged gangster. Comancheros Buddle was born in Maroubra and had what was described as a "gritty" childhood. On 7 June 2010, the security guard Gary Allibon was ...

replaced him as the Comanchero national president. 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". 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. In one of his texts, Ngakuru wrote that he had such "power and influence" in Turkey that he felt he was immune to arrest. In another text, Ngakuru wrote that he felt he was “being able to get away with murder”. Unbeknownst to Ngakuru the ANOM encrypted messaging service he used was owned by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI) and all of his texts were read by the FBI. 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 Operation Trojan Shield (stylized TRØJAN SHIELD), part of Operation Ironside, was a collaboration by law enforcement agencies from several countries, running between 2018 and 2021. It was a sting operation that intercepted millions of messag ...

. 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.. After

was extradited from Turkey to Australia in August 2022, Ngakuru was reported to have resumed his role as the Comanchero "supreme commander". 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. 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." In January 2023, he was arrested in Turkey and it was reported that Turkish authorities were in talks for Ngakuru's possible extradition to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. 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. Another photograph showed Ngakuru on a luxury yacht in the

Bosporus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...

under a giant Turkish flag. Together with

Hakan Ayik Hakan Ayik, also known as Hakan Reis (born 31 January 1979) is a Turkish-Australian drug trafficker. He has an estimated net worth of 2.3 billion dollars, and was described in June 2021 as "Australia's most wanted man". Early life Ayik was bo ...

, 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. At the time of his arrest, Ngakuru was living in a villa in the Sarıyer district of

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Books

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngakuru, Duax Living people 1980 births 21st-century Australian criminals Australian expatriates in Turkey Australian gangsters Australian male criminals Comanchero Motorcycle Club Criminals from Sydney New Zealand emigrants to Australia New Zealand expatriates in Turkey Organised crime in Sydney