Author(s): Jared Savage

NZ General Non Fiction

The much anticipated follow-up to the bestseller that exposed the escalation of organised crime in New Zealand.

Gangster's Paradise is about drugs, guns, gangs and money. Lots of money. A gang which took over a small rural town. A police officer shot and killed in a routine traffic stop. A port-worker who helped a gang whisk a shipping container off a wharf in the middle of the night. A crew of corrupt baggage handlers smuggling meth into the country during Covid lockdowns. A shooting inside a 5-star hotel in broad daylight.

Turf wars, retaliation, and retribution: new gangs like the Mongols and Comancheros have brought with them better connections with international syndicates, challenging the established gangs like the Head Hunters - so dominant for many years - who have had to up their game in response.

Jared Savage's bestselling book Gangland was about the evolution of gangs in New Zealand. Gangster's Paradise is about the deadly escalation.