Northland gangs respond to Shane Jones 'drop a nuke' threat

Northland gangs have hit back at politician Shane Jones for saying he'd like to 'drop a nuke' on gangs to get rid of them after an organised fight night.

Mr Jones, New Zealand First's candidate for Northland, made the comments on The AM Show on Monday.

He called the gang fight "criminal tourism" and said it was perverse logic to host the fight night when gangs continue to sell P "and kill the rest of the community".

"It's creepy and if I had my way I would have got one of those nukes from North Korea and got rid of them all in one go."

Mr Jones' comments didn't go down well with one of the organisers, who Newshub understands is associated with the Head Hunters.

"He's lost our support mate, the Maori support is 39 percent of the north, everyone in the north has family associated with gangs, associated with jail."

He said many who attended the event weren't gang members and some were family members of Mr Jones.

"Kids and wives and families in there why would he do that shit, his own nephews, saying he wants to drop a bomb on his own nephews."

Herbert, who didn't want his surname used, had this explanation for Jones' comments.

"Just the basic redneck vote I suppose, he wants the redneck vote. Very hurt about it as organisers, we had kids in there."

Mr Jones says he can handle the heat he's been getting on Facebook, but threats about ripping his hoardings down were concerning.

He says hoardings are up to $200 a pop and he plans to put up about 40, so that's $8000.

"The threats that people associated with the gangs are going to destroy my hoardings makes me very uneasy, because it's a very expensive thing."

Mr Jones says he's going to start putting up his hoardings over the next few weeks so he'll be hoping the threats on Facebook are just talk.

Newshub.