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Staff Photographer / Stuff
A white Mercedes car was watched by police in front of Christchurch Hospital after an injured man who fell there later died.
Police have raided the South Island headquarters of the international Mongolian motorcycle gang MC as they search for those who killed an abandoned man in a Christchurch hospital.
A homicide investigation was launched after the wounded man was taken to the city’s main hospital early on New Year’s Day and later died.
Officers were notified after the man arrived at the hospital, Detective Sergeant Major Joel Syme said.
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“As a result, the police have launched a homicide investigation and are working to determine the circumstances of the death,” he said.
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A white Mercedes car parked outside the emergency department in the new Christchurch Hospital building, Waipapa, on Riccarton Ave was cordoned off and guarded by police on Friday morning.
It was later removed by a crane.
Stuff understands that a woman with a white Mercedes had earlier stopped behind a fire truck parked in front of the Canterbury Museum.
She told firefighters, who were responding to a call, that an injured man was in the car.
The woman said she found the man, who was known to her, on the side of a road near Burnham.
Firefighters later helped the woman take the injured man to hospital.
Stuff understands that the man who died had gang ties.
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
A man died after being taken to Christchurch Hospital on Friday morning. (File photo)
Dozens of police officers were seen on the Mongols MC gang platform in Burnham, southwest of Christchurch, on Friday night.
It is understood that the raid was linked to the homicide investigation.
Police, including members of the National Group Against Organized Crime, also raided Burnham property and the Rolleston home of local President Jason Ross last month.
They recovered $ 6,000 in cash, a stolen vehicle and a loaded 22-gauge semi-automatic firearm.
“The search warrants were directed at a core group that was allegedly involved in the importation, distribution and manufacture of illicit drugs throughout Christchurch,” Detective Inspector Julian Rinckes said at the time.
The Mongols, led by National President Jim Thacker, established a chapter in the Bay of Plenty last year.
The gang expanded to the South Island earlier this year, creating tension between rival groups, particularly the Tribesmen MC, which was considered the dominant player in the region’s underworld at the time.
In separate attacks in February, believed to be targeting Mongols, a tattoo parlor and a barber shop were struck by vehicles in Christchurch. The barbershop, which has no apparent link to the gang other than through a man who used to associate with the local president, was also bombed.
The same month, the Mongol headquarters in Burnham was shot by someone wielding a high-caliber rifle.
Police raided the property several days later and found 10 weapons, military-style semiautomatic, shotguns and a pistol, some of which were hidden in the walls and ceiling, along with dozens of bullets, $ 50,000 in cash and methamphetamine.
Another raid in May revealed drugs, firearms and stolen property.
The Mongol gang took a major hit in June last year when police searched 18 properties and executed 18 search warrants over two days in Waikato and the Bay of Plenty, called Operation Silk. The entire upper echelon of the motorcycle gang was arrested and 13 firearms were seized, including three loaded AK47s (Soviet-designed assault rifles) and two military-style semi-automatic firearms (MSSA).
Other items seized in the raids included Molotov cocktails (glass bottles with flammable substances), a homemade bomb, drugs and cash.
