The Killer Beez and Tribesmen motorcycle gangs were just days into a ceasefire following three weeks of perpetual gang warfare across Auckland, when a murder plan was devised from prison that threatened to obliterate the fragile truce.

The scheme: have a Killer Beez member on the outside carry out a hit on a Tribesman MC member named “Sweet”.

“He has to be smoked, eh,” Henderson resident Chavess Turner, 30, was instructed on June 19, 2022, hours before the shooting was to take place.

“Still gonna whack it out,” Turner, who is known by the street names “Azem” or “Az”, replied in barely coded speech during a follow-up call a short time later. “Whack it out the park, brother.”

The plan was conceived at a time when there were so many drive-by shootings gang warfare became a nationwide political issue and resulted in the sacking of a Government minister.

But the plan failed due to a simple miscalculation: not taking into account that prison calls are monitored.

Details of the incident were made public for the first time this week after Turner returned to the dock in the High Court at Auckland, where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder. Wednesday also marked the first time since Turner’s arrest last year that he could be named in relation to the charge.

He now faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The two gangs had been long time rivals but had co-existed in relative peace for several years when tensions started to heat up in March 2022 after Killer Beez members were believed to have shot at an address where Tribesmen were celebrating after a patching ceremony.

Tensions increased the following month, after Killer Beez members were mocked by the other gang online following an Auckland motorway crash involving several motorbikes that was caught on film.

Then all hell seemed to break loose on May 24, when shootings were reported in Papatoetoe, Ōtara, Flat Bush, Papakura, Te Atatū, Mt Albert and Henderson during a single night of chaos. Between May 2 and June 10, police believe 21 shootings and nine arsons were attributable to the conflict. 

The violence didn’t die down until peace talks between senior leaders of the two gangs, sources told the Herald at the time.

But it appears not everyone got the message.

Among the homes that had been shot at on May 24 was one on Rathgar Rd in Henderson where “Sweet” was known to live, according to court documents released to NZME. A group of Killer Beez members is alleged to have been behind it.

A police car outside a driveway on Rathgar Rd in Henderson, West Auckland, where a home was shot at during a night of chaos in May 2022. Photo / Hayden Woodward

The following evening, the home where a Killer Beez member lived in Massey was shot at. Although police never identified who was responsible for that shooting, several Killer Beez members had decided that “Sweet” was to blame and decided to escalate the retaliation rather than abide by the ceasefire, authorities allege.

Roughly three weeks later, on June 19, Turner was recorded telling a fellow gang member he would “do that thing tonight”.

The other man then “instructed Turner to keep that ‘movie’ (a reference to a shooting) unknown and not to let others know”, court documents state.

“I’ll get that whacked out done tonight,” the defendant reassured him.

“Don’t spray it,” the other man clarified. “He has to be smoked.”

Armed police stand outside a home in Massey where a Killer Beez member was living in May 2022 when it was shot at amid escalating gang warfare with the Tribesmen. Photo / Hayden Woodward

The other man is alleged to have dropped all coded language - making the intentions even clearer - a short time later as he discussed plans via the same prison phoneline with his girlfriend, who tried in vain to talk him out of it.

“It’s not even spraying ... You pull up for the kill,” he is alleged to have told her.

“...I’m gonna f***ing kill that c***, no one ain’t gonna f***ing know,” he is alleged to have continued, responding “I don’t care” when it was pointed out by his partner that prison calls are recorded.

When approached with the allegation, Turner declined to speak with police.

Multiple other co-defendants have pleaded not guilty and await trial.

Justice Mathew Downs remanded Turner in custody to await sentencing in November. In the meantime, he has an electronically monitored bail request hearing scheduled for next month.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.