A Mongrel Mob house in Dunedin is set to be forfeited to the Crown and put on the market.
An application to confiscate the Middleton Rd house, once a central cog in the gang's cannabis operation, was expected to be approved this week, Crown prosecutor Marie Grills said when contacted yesterday.
The house has been under a restraining order since April, when search warrants were executed around the city and more than 10 Mongrel Mob members were arrested in connection with drugs, mainly cannabis dealing, as part of Operation Rocket.
Five of the most senior members of the gang, among others, have since pleaded guilty to multiple drug-dealing charges and are awaiting sentence.
Since it was placed under a restraining order, the gang house has been burgled and the target of an arson attack.
Once the house is legally signed over, the Official Assignee, the Government, will put it on the market.
The rateable value of the house, which belongs to Marilyn Tina Pomana, is $195,000.
The house would be the second gang house to be seized since the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery) Act came into force in December last year.
A Mount Wellington, Auckland, Black Power gang house at the centre of a large cannabis operation was seized by the Crown last year.
The house, which had a rateable value of $540,000, was sold by tender in January for $245,000, despite attempts by Black Power president Mark Pitman, who had owned it for 15 years, to buy the property himself.
Pitman was sentenced to three and a-half years in prison for masterminding the operation.
However, The New Zealand Herald reported yesterday the buyer on-sold the property to a trust, which was now leasing the property to Black Power.
Auckland police told the paper they were disappointed and were keeping an eye on activity at the house.
