There's finally some more action on one of the world's greatest police sting operations
targeting the gangland elite. A New Zealand man with an Australian biker club wanted in America
was arrested in Thailand — for an international plot that united criminals around the globe
How's that for international cooperation — on both sides of the badge. The Mob Reporter here
with the latest on the high-profile fugitives from U.S. justice who weren't anywhere to be
found in June 2021 when the incredible AN0M encrypted phone network sting clamped shut
trapping a thousand suspects in more than a dozen countries... and counting. Let me tell you about it
Shane Ngakuru is the latest to be caught. Wanted in the United States
and in New Zealand, he was named as one of the big fish in the FBI's Operation
Trojan Shield. Here is Ngakuru being arrested in Thailand on October 19, 2022
and then being questioned by Thai police. Thai authorities described him as an important member
of "the New Zealand Mafia gang" — by that they mean the Comanchero Motorcycle Club, a powerful outlaw
biker club that was started in Australia. The 43-year-old Ngakuru, authorities allege, is one
of New Zealand's biggest crime exports. Here's what a New Zealand official had to say the day
of his arrest: "He has been an offender of the highest priority for New Zealand and in this region
and internationally, and we are grateful for the skills and determination of the Royal Thai police..."
Ngakuru is not just any common Comanchero member, police say, but one of its internationally
influential members, partly because of who his cousin is, another New Zealander who made it
big in Australia's outlaw biker scene; a man named Duax Ngakuru, also known as Dax. Dax has been called
an "international commander" of the Comanchero organization. Now the Comanchero mimic American
outlaw biker culture, but it's a made-in-Australia version that's found great success. It is the
Comanchero that police recently declared as, quote: "Australia's largest organized crime network."
This news from Thailand suddenly thrusts the huge International probe Ngakuru was snared in
back into view. It was back in June 2021. Rarely is there's so little action in the aftermath of
such a sprawling, headline-grabbing, publicity heavy indictment — especially considering the head start
authorities had in tracking the fugitives down. The short strokes of the operation are this: Gangsters
around the world were tricked into selling and distributing a black market encrypted phone system
that supposedly allowed criminals to communicate in ironclad secrecy. It was not, in fact, created and
run by international gangster-geeks and criminal masterminds, but by the FBI and Australian police
The operation is stunning in its ambition and its results. The brilliance of this operation was that
real-life criminal influencers were tricked into recruiting other users to the platform, because
when men with these underworld reputations recommended a product it was taken seriously
The system was called ANOM and its marketing slogan was "designed by criminals for criminals"
Distribution started in 2019 and during all that time, thinking everything was secure and secret
those using the phones had open conversations that were as criminally intimate as they come
Messages about hits and shipments, plots and plans, allies and enemies. They shared secrets about
their corrupt port workers and customs agents, their cargo ship captains who were "on side." They
sent photos to each other of how their cocaine was being hidden, even of the French diplomatic
pouches sent from Colombia that had kilos of coke hidden inside. For two years the messages
photos and calls over the ANOM system were being monitored by American and Australian police, who
then filtered them about to law enforcement agencies around the world. I'll link below to a
video I made at the time giving all the details. Now where to Shame Ngakuru fit into all of this
mayhem? He is named in a U.S indictment as one of 14 alleged Distributors of ANOM's services
to underworld figures. One of the super spreaders, so to speak. Thai police said Ngakuru relocated to
Thailand to avoid scrutiny in 2014, where he met and married a Thai woman. He returned to
Thailand in 2020, months before the AN0M sting was revealed. Police alleged that he was there
to nurture contacts and facilitate growth between some members of the Comanchero and members of
crime syndicates in Asia. Asian gangsters have the supply from the Golden Triangle and bikers
offer down-under distribution. Although Ngakuru arrived legally in Thailand, he overstayed his
visitor's permit and was lying low with his Thai wife in Phuket, an island off the west coast of
the mainland that's a tourist hot spot and thick with expats. In Thailand, he was a businessman
involved, it seems, in businesses that bikers often gravitate to: tattoo parlor, fitness club,
restaurant, and nutritional supplements. Here he is at a high-end tattoo studio in Phuket, where he is
described as part of the company's "family". The tattoo business looks like it does great work
advertising itself is having Australian hygiene with Thai artists. One of their specialties is
gangster tattoos, like these images from Goodfellas, this intricate portrait of a
famed Australian criminal named Chopper Read, and other crime-related and crime scene images
Ngakuru was seen wearing a shirt promoting a fitness club and he was wearing a
shirt promoting a related nutritional supplement business when he was arrested
An arrest warrant for Ngakuru was issued in June 2021 and Thai police said that once he
was named as a front man in the ANOM indictment, he left Phuket for Samut Prakan, settling in a
rented house in a suburb of Bangkok. Thai police arrested him outside a shopping center without
serious incident. They then searched the place where he was living, saying they found evidence
of several unspecified offenses. I guess that's what these senior officials are looking at here
New Zealanders might choose Thailand partly because it doesn't have an extradition treaty
with New Zealand. That didn't end up being great protection from Ngakuru, however, when
his indictment came from the United States. So while New Zealand doesn't have an extradition
treaty with Thailand, the United States does. To facilitate his removal from Thailand, New
Zealand authorities agreed to wait its turn, allowing him to be put on trial in the U.S first
Thai officials said he was already handed over to American authorities, and if that's true he
is in some sort of processing limbo because he has not made a public appearance yet in court
In San Diego, California, he is wanted for racketeering under the federal RICO
conspiracy act which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years of prison. The thing is, officials in
the U.S haven't breathed a whisper about it over nearly two weeks. Once in the United States
an accused typically has a first appearance within two or three days. I've been asking the
U.S attorney's office and the FBI in San Diego for information without any answers. The most they will
say is that they can't comment on extradition matters. Maybe someone somewhere just has a lot
of questions for him. None of these allegations, of course, have been proven in court. Ngakuru will
likely be the second alleged ANOM distributor to appear in U.S court. Aurangzeb Ayub is a dual
national of Britain and the Netherlands. He was living with his wife in the Netherlands when he
was arrested and quietly extradited to the U.S in March. There was no announcement or fanfare
Ayub pleaded not guilty in March and in April he was released from custody pending trial on
a $100,000 bond with travel restrictions, an order not to cross into Mexico
and electronic monitoring. The trial will be a monster. The evidence submitted so far in
Ayub's case includes 12,856 messages, 7995 photographs, 7610 audio files, 431 videos and
531 pages of reports and documents, with more discovery evidence expected. Many of
the messages are in languages other than English, including a lot in Ayub's case that are in Dutch
In September, the judge formally declared it a complex case. No kidding. Bringing Ngakuru into the
mix — and maybe, one day, the other 15 defendants — sure won't make it any easier. Please consider
tapping the new "Thanks" button under this video, or joining me on Patreon, that's at
patreon.com/TheMobReporter. And as always, please subscribe like and comment on the video. Thanks for watching