Devils Diciples MC: Michigan members sentenced to prison

Detroit, MI (November 15, 2018) BTN— The former national president of the Devils Diciples Motorcycle Club, Jeff Garvin Smith, aka “Fat Dog,” was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison.

According to court documents, Smith, 64, of Mount Clemens, was convicted along with the national vice president and national warlord, and three others, for their participation in various criminal acts, including RICO, violent crimes in aid of racketeering, methamphetamine production and trafficking, illegal firearms offenses, obstruction of justice, subornation of perjury and other federal offenses.

“The life sentence imposed on this defendant is a clear indication of the seriousness of the violence he engaged in and how committed the law enforcement community is to stop this kind of organized violence,” said Special Agent in Charge Timothy R. Slater, Detroit Division of the FBI.

“The FBI, our state and local partners and the U.S. Attorney’s offices across the region will not rest until all who would harm the peace and safety of our residents are brought to justice, regardless of where those threats originate."

Awaiting sentencing are four remaining defendants, three from Michigan, who were found guilty by a jury of engaging in a RICO conspiracy, methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct justice, violent crimes in aid of racketeering and various substantive charges.

Those individuals include National Vice President Paul Anthony Darrah, of Macomb Township, Victor Castano, of St. Clair Shores, and David Randy Drozdowski, of Fair Haven, Michigan.

Drozdowski was separately found guilty by a jury of committing violent crimes in aid of racketeering and being a felon in possession of ammunition, while Castano was separately found guilty of obstruction of justice and subornation of perjury.

According to evidence presented at these trials, the Devils Diciples (which is intentionally misspelled) is a motorcycle club with its national headquarters in Clinton Township. For decades, the Devils Diciples operated regional chapters in cities throughout Michigan, Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and engaged in criminal activities to protect the enterprise and for financial gain.

Prosecutors said members are required to own Harley-Davidson motorcycles and are required to follow orders from the clubs’s leadership, including orders to assault, threaten and intimidate others, to transport and distribute drugs, to lie to law enforcement and to hide or destroy evidence.

According to evidence presented at trial, Smith and Darrah were responsible for overall management of the activities of the other Devils Diciples members and chapters, including giving final approval to any activity generally affecting the club as a whole and a individuals, including members and associates of the club, were beaten and robbed, and Smith also participated in this activity directly.

In addition to the four trial defendants sentenced recently, over 50 members and associates of the Devil’s Diciples have pleaded guilty to various crimes as result of this investigation. The investigation further resulted in the seizure of more than 60 firearms and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition and the dismantling of eight methamphetamine manufacturing laboratories across the country.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the Michigan State Police, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office and the County of Macomb Enforcement Team, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Office.

SOURCE: Click on Detroit

Hells Angels member and wife sentenced to death

Perth, Thailand (November 15, 2018) — A Perth father turned Hells Angels MC member and drugs trafficker and his wife have been sentenced to death in Thailand over a failed bid to smuggle half a tonne of crystal meth-amphetamine through the country to Australia.

Luke Joshua Cook, 35, and his Thai wife Kanyarat Wechapitak were arrested in December at Bangkok International Airport when he returned on a flight from Australia after local police linked him to a plot to import meth into Thailand two years earlier.

The Thai courts sentenced the pair to death for the plan to traffic the crystal meth, also known as ice, with an estimated street value of $300 million. Their sentences are expected to be commuted to life in jail.

Assets linked to the pair worth $800,000 including property, cash and cars are to be forfeited.

Veneer of boats, bars and baht fell apart in Thailand for Perth man Luke Cook. Cook, who is believed to have two children, was born in Duncraig in 1983 and spent part of his childhood in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea before returning to WA as a teenager.

According to a CV he posted on LinkedIn, from mid-2003 he spent several years working as a chef in fly-in, fly-out positions around WA including on a fishing boat and at mine sites, as well as at the Christmas Island immigration detention centre. After meeting his future wife online, he moved to Thailand where he bought a bar in the beach resort town of Pattaya, set up a business importing boats and marine parts and joined the Pattaya branch of the Hells Angels.

Police said that in 2015, Cook took a yacht into international waters off the Thai coast to collect 500kg of meth from a Chinese trawler. The illicit cargo was dumped overboard after the Thai Coast Guard came across the boat on its way back to port.

Although the patrol boat saw a man throwing bags over the side, he escaped in the dim, early-morning light. Four sacks containing about 50kg of the meth were found washed ashore on Mae Ramphueng Beach in Rayong province.

Thai authorities said Cook was given $15 million by high-ranking Australian Hells Angels bikie Wayne Schneider to buy and store the drugs for later shipment to Australia.

After the failed delivery, Schneider — a fugitive who was wanted in Australia on multiple warrants and was deemed at the time to be the biggest importer of narcotics into Australia — demanded his money back. He was murdered in November 2015 by members of his gang, his naked and mutilated body found in a shallow grave by the side of a road in Pattaya.

Cook was convicted and handed a suspended sentence over his involvement in the Schneider murder after trying to help former Sydney gangster Antonio Bagnato flee the country and cross the border to Cambodia. Bagnato was arrested, found guilty and sentenced to death over the murder but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday declined to comment on Cook’s sentencing citing privacy reasons.

Luke Joshua Cook, 35, and his Thai wife Kanyarat Wechapitak

A spokeswoman confirmed “the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to an Australian in Thailand”.

An Australian Federal Police spokesman said that it was not appropriate to comment as it was a matter for the Thai authorities. “The AFP was briefed in relation to this matter following the arrest by Thai authorities,” he said yesterday. “The AFP had no involvement in the Thai investigation that resulted in this man’s arrest and subsequent conviction.”

The arrest of Cook and his 40-year-old wife in December was part of a series of raids by the Thai police in an operation dubbed Clipping The Wings Of Angels as it sought to smash Australian Outlaw Motorcycle Gang-led bikie chapters in Thailand. Several Australians were arrested and deported and at least two remain on the run.

Thai police said the Australian men were involved in drugs, extortion, money laundering, weapons, human trafficking for the sex industry and posed a national threat to security.

An investigation last year found that in Thailand alone, 36 motorcycle club chapters had been established by Australian-led or affiliated gang members, particularly around tourist resort cities of Pattaya, Phuket and Chiang Mai and the capital Bangkok.

Chapters have also been established in Indonesia, Cambodia and Singapore.

SOURCE: The West Australian  

Charges dropped against Pagans MC members in bar fight

Pittsburgh, PA (November 15, 2018) BTN— The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office has withdrawn charges filed against members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club in the wake of a bar fight on the South Side last month.

The fight, which was caught on surveillance video on Oct. 12 at Kopy’s Bar, involved members of the Pagan Motorcycle Club and undercover officers.

Related | District Attorney: Police not submitting evidenceagainst Pagans MC in bar fight

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Related | Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows copsstarted bar fight 

Related | Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started thefight

“The video posed problems for law enforcement, as a result of the actions that occurred there. I think that… I was looking forward for an opportunity to start cross-examining the officers,” said defense attorney Lee Rothman.

Photo Credit: KDKA

Following the fight, Rothman’s client, Frank DeLuca, a known member of the Pagan Motorcycle Club, and three other members were charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy and riot.

But the Allegheny County DA’s Office released a statement Wednesday, saying those charges have been withdrawn based on evidence.

The full statement goes on to say they reserve the option to re-file the charges, and acknowledged the uniformed officers who responded to the incident:

“This afternoon our office withdrew all charges filed against 4 individuals in the wake of an altercation inside of Kopy’s Bar on Oct. 12, 2018. The withdrawal of the charges was based on evidentiary reasons and issues and our office reserves the option of refiling. Our office wishes to acknowledge the actions of the uniformed officers who responded to the altercation, doing so in a calm and professional manor despite being faced with a chaotic situation.”

Last month, defense attorneys said it was the undercover officers who should be charged in the incident. The attorneys say the officers were allegedly drunk, brandished firearms and provoked the entire confrontation.

DeLuca was seen in the video being pinned in place against the bar while an unidentified undercover officer repeatedly punched him in the head.

DeLuca’s attorney said Wednesday that his client never should have been charged.

“Those undercover officers acted in a manner that, I believe, was excessive, and that caused injuries to my client,” said Rothman.

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police issued this statement Wednesday night in response to the charges being withdrawn:

“We respect the District Attorney’s decision to withdraw the charges, with an option to refile later. “The PBP takes all incidents that involve the use of force seriously, which is why we always conduct full reviews when such force is required. These internal investigations are a part of our protocol.

“We also prioritize transparency, which is why we asked OMI and the FBI to further investigate this matter. If it is determined that internal discipline or administrative actions should be taken, such actions will be taken. “The public and our officers deserve an impartial examination of the facts. There are three separate independent investigations regarding this incident, and we continue to cooperate with each of them.”

District Attorney Zappala and U.S. Attorney Scott Brady met last month about opening a possible federal probe into the incident.

SOURCE: KDKA2

Rhode Island grand jury indicts MC members and associates

Providence, R.I. (November 9, 2018) BTN — A statewide grand jury has indicted 41 of 61 people arrested this spring in a state police undercover investigation into alleged assaults, drug-dealing and gun-running by Rhode Island motorcycle club members or their associates.

Guns, drugs and a rocket launcher was seized during the May 23 raids 

The state attorney general’s office released the 171-page indictment on Thursday that listed 424 counts of alleged crimes.

Sixteen others have already waived their right to have their cases presented to the grand jury and pleaded guilty, said Amy Kempe, spokeswoman for Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin.

Some of the weapons confiscated during the May 23rd raids

Four others had their cases referred to the state’s Drug Court or to the attorney general’s Adult Diversion Unit, which serves as an alternative to prosecution for first-time nonviolent felony offenders.

Arraignments for those indicted are scheduled to begin December 5th before Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause

In the predawn hours of May 23, more than 150 state and federal investigators swarmed through northern Rhode Island, carrying out at least 29 separate raids of homes, businesses and at least one motorcycle club headquarters.

For almost a year beforehand, authorities have said, they had been gathering information through at least one confidential informant and wiretaps on several cell phones used by a Burrillville man about the Pagans Motorcycle Club trying to establish a Rhode Island chapter and that biker rivalries were spawning violence.

Those recorded conversations between Deric “Tuna” McGuire and his associates also led them to believe McGuire was not just a motorcycle club leader but the head of a Woonsocket-based drug enterprise.

McGuire, who is named in the indictment, faces more than 220 counts of narcotics and weapons charges.

Display of items confiscated during Operation Patched Out carried out on May 23rd

The raids produced a stash of weapons and drugs — even one rocket launcher. And they came just weeks after a member of the Massachusetts Pagans was shot on Route 95 in Connecticut.

Mugshots: Operation Patched Out

State police officials said at the time they decided to move in when they did to prevent any further violence.

SOURCE: Providence Journal

District Attorney: Police not submitting evidence against Pagans MC in bar fight

Pittsburgh, PA (November 5, 2018) Editorial — What were members of the Pittsburgh police doing drinking in a South Side bar before fighting four men, all allegedly members of the Pagans motorcycle club, earlier last month? And why are the police stonewalling the district attorney’s office as the city attempts to figure out what led to that drunken melee?

These are the questions that must be answered as serious questions have been raised about the official police account surrounding the recent brawl.

Video still of bar fight with the Pagans MC and undercover police on October 13, 2018

The Oct. 13 dust up was ostensibly the result of a drug dealing sting gone awry. According to the police, the undercover officers had their covers blown before a Pagan allegedly started pushing and throwing punches. The officers claimed the use of force was necessary for bringing down the unruly men.

All told, four alleged Pagans were arrested and charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy and causing a riot.

Video from the incident and testimony from others have revealed discrepancies in the official account

Surveillance cameras inside the bar captured officers drinking heavily for about five hours before the confrontation. Attorney Martin A. Dietz, who represents 28-year-old Erik Heitzenrater, estimated that some of the detectives had as many as 15 drinks, usually doubles and triples on the rocks.

The officers then verbally sparred with the alleged Pagans. One detective raised his shirt to display his firearm. More words were exchanged, then pushing, then fisticuffs.

Related |Pittsburgh Mayor defends drunken cops who started fight withPagans MC members 

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Related |Pagans MC: District attorney waits on critical info from cops  

Related |Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight  

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

After the fight broke out, video captured one defendant, 36-year-old Frank Deluca, being pinned against the bar by one officer as another struck Mr. Deluca in the head 19 times. Mr. Deluca was hospitalized with two black eyes, one of which was swollen shut, and bruising on his forehead.

Another alleged Pagan can be seen getting punched by an officer despite standing away from the scuffle. The officer then kicks that same man on the ground.

It is clear there are significant questions to be answered about this operation. But the police have not seemed too eager to answer them.

On Oct. 25, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. publicly questioned why the police have not been forthcoming with evidence and statements about the brawl.

Not enough evidence against the Pagans MC 

Mr. Zappala said that, as of this writing, he does not have enough evidence to prosecute any of the accused Pagans. He also stated that the police have not informed if the officers were actually undercover or on an assignment in the bar.

Are officers permitted to drink on the job? What latitude is afforded to undercover officers on assignment? What is the evidence supporting the charges facing the four alleged Pagans?

Mr. Zappala is right to criticize the department for its obfuscation, an approach he has effectively used in the past. The people of Pittsburgh need to know that their police officers are comporting themselves in a respectful manner and that the department will provide transparency and accountability. They deserve answers.

SOURCE:The Editorial Board - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Mongols MC: Rat brags how he gained trust with members

Santa Ana, California. (November 2, 2018) BTN — A veteran federal agent who spent years undercover after infiltrating the Mongols Motorcycle Club offered his first-hand account Thursday of a secretive culture of violence and intimidation during testimony in an ongoing federal racketeering trial.

The three years that Darrin Kozlowski and three other U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Officers spent embedded in the outlaw motorcycle club already has led to guilty pleas from 77 members of the Mongols. 

Now, the since-retired special agents’ efforts are at the center of the government’s attempts to seize legal control over the Mongols’ trademark name, a move that would bar the bikers from wearing the patches that now adorn their vests.

Related | Mongols MC: Feds going after clubs colors at racketeering trial

During a federal trial in Santa Ana this week, prosecutors have portrayed the Mongols as a criminal organization that encourages and rewards members who take part in violent, at-times deadly assaults, including riots in Laughlin, Nev. and a melee at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon near Palm Springs in 2002, and violent attacks in bars or restaurants in more recent years in Hollywood, Pasadena, Merced, La Mirada, Wilmington and Riverside.

Kozlowski, who previously infiltrated a Hollywood chapter of the Vagos motorcycle club and an East Coast chapter of the Warlocks motorcycle club, worked his way up the ranks of the Cypress Park chapter of the Mongols between 2005 and 2008, adopting the persona of “Dirty Dan” and telling other members of the club that he had Mafia ties fostered while growing up in Chicago.

It was a risky move, Kozlowski acknowledged during his testimony, particularly since he had already infiltrated one outlaw motorcycle club in Southern California. A photo of Kozlowski had also been printed in a book written by William Queen, a since-retired ATF agent who had infiltrated the Mongols years earlier, and whose work was well known throughout the motorcycle gang.

Kozlowski testified to buying crystal methamphetamine from several members of the Mongols, to being present for several brawls in clubs or parking lots, to helping members legally barred from having firearms hide their guns and to being told that other members of the club that they had killed members of the Hells Angels, whose bloody rivalry with the Mongols dates back to the 1970s.

“Members would often talk about doing things to elevate themselves within the Mongols by doing these acts of violence,” Kozlowski said. “It was talked about as a badge of honor.”

Kozlowski said some members of the motorcycle club were initially suspicious of him and the other undercover agents, forcing them to take polygraph tests before being allowed to join. He described for jurors the inner workings of the club, including detailing the various patches members can acquire for a variety of actions, from assaults and even murders of rivals to explicit sexual conquests.

To bolster his false identity, Kozlowski said he once offered to fly his chapter president to Chicago for a tour of what he claimed were his childhood neighborhoods. The chapter president unexpectedly accepted the invitation, Kozlowski testified, and law enforcement officials were forced to set up a dinner in Chicago with other agents posing as Italian organized crime bosses who told the Mongols leader they had worked with Kozlowski on past criminal endeavors.

There were several times Kozlowski said he believed the other Mongols were on the verge of realizing he was a law enforcement officer. He recalled once entering the home of Mongols leadership to see several members holding Queen’s book and looking at the photographs, and immediately believing he had been set up before realizing it was simply a coincidence. The president of his chapter eventually saw the photo of Kozlowski in the book, and had to be convinced it wasn’t him.

“Why would a member of the ATF who infiltrated the Vagos in this area come back and be a member of the Mongols?” Kozlowski testified about telling his chapter president.

Attorney Joseph Yanny, who is representing the Mongols, has acknowledged that members of the club broke the law, but told jurors that those individuals had been kicked out for their actions. On other occasions, Yanny told jurors, the club members acted in self-defense or were induced into drug deals by undercover agents.

Kozlowski testified that during his time with the motorcycle club he never saw anyone kicked out for illegal behavior, including individuals convicted of felonies. Prosecutors have previously indicated that if they are successful in their efforts to gain legal control over the Mongols’ trademark, they could literally take the jacket off the bikers backs anywhere in the country. The club traces its roots to Montebello in the 1970s.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who is presiding over the trial, was angered late Thursday morning when four bikers, including one wearing sunglasses, appeared in the courtroom. The judge initially believed that it was a violation of an agreement the club had made to only have two of its members in the courtroom at a time, but learned that two of the visitors were from other motorcycle clubs.

Carter, who noted that 40 to 50 Mongol members attended some pretrial hearings, said anyone has a right to watch the trial. But he also made clear that for every member of the Mongol’s who attends, he will have an equal number of U.S. Marshal’s in the courtroom.

“You can have 50 people in here, but I’ll match them,” Carter warned the clubs leaders. “My jury is not going to be intimidated.”

SOURCE: The Orange County Register

Feds move forward with new tattoo recognition tech in prisons

Gaithersburg, MD (November 1, 2018) BTN — The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) partnered with the FBI to evaluate a tattoo recognition software to be implemented in federal prisons.

The software evaluates tattoos for political beliefs, religious beliefs and any organizational affiliation, including criminal.

NIST said the Tattoo Recognition Technology Program is designed to assess and measure the capability of systems to perform automated image-based tattoo recognition. Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) question the legitimacy of how this technology benefits American citizens.

“One of the emerging technologies is tattoo recognition,” Dave Maass said. “We really would like to challenge, then criticize it before it really becomes as widespread as some of the other technologies that are out there.”

Maass is a senior investigative researcher at EFF and has followed NIST’s program since 2015, one year after its start.

NIST is reviewing this technology for use in federal prisons, and they used images of inmates’ tattoos for their Tattoo Recognition Technology Challenge (Tatt-C). NIST failed to obtain the required human subjects protection review until after the experiment. This review ensures the protection of human subjects in research and is required prior to starting the research.

“NIST regrets that its formal human subjects protection review occurred while the Tatt-C publications were being drafted and not prior to the start of the project as required,” NIST said.

Remy Cross is a sociology and criminology professor at Webster University. Cross has conducted research involving prisoners. He said prisoners, current patients and children require the greatest attention when dealing with informed consent.

“I have to meet a very high standard as a social scientist to be able to conduct research with prisoners through the National Institute of Justice and through the Department of Justice,” Cross said. “The problem is this research is coming out of [the Department of Commerce] which does not have the same understanding and the same duty to protection of these populations.”

NIST said after a full human subjects protection review was conducted, Tatt-C did not meet the criteria for human subjects research as defined by federal regulations. Since the general human subjects protection regulations did not apply, the section of the regulations related to prisoners also did not apply.  

Since the conclusion of Tatt-C, NIST said it hired additional human subjects protection experts and expanded and enhanced training for its staff. NIST began conducting Tattoo Recognition Technology Evaluation (Tatt-E) in 2016 as a continuation of Tatt-C, and plans to commence this fall.

Maass said he worries the reasons for incarceration are becoming more about data collection. He said he fears people will be incarcerated in order to get pictures of their tattoos or get their DNA.

“It’s really important that you realize that just because you’re arrested doesn’t mean you’ve actually committed a crime,” Maass said. “And yet by being booked into the system, you have all of those things robbed of you, your images relating to your body. But I think that with tattoos, there’s a lot of room for error in there and that it doesn’t serve the causes of justice.”

Cross said the belief that tattoos and criminality go hand in hand has been around for hundreds of years, and research shows it is not true.

“What you have here is myth and the Department of Commerce attempting to replicate the Soviet-era criminal tattoo tracking program, but using fancy technology for it and in the face of the fact that these tattoo tracking things are not proven to be very effective,” Cross said.

Cross said when someone gets a tattoo with criminal ties, it can be for a variety of reasons that are not criminal reasons. Other people have tattoos from a criminal past that they moved on from. Cross said this technology tries to assign people into different categories based on their tattoos without allowing them to explain their meaning for the tattoo.

Maas fears this technology will expand from solely being used in federal prisons.

“We’re not just talking about inmates,” Maass said. “We’re talking about potentially having this being used against immigrants, being used in deportation efforts, being used to add people to gang databases that even if they aren’t a gang member, being added to a database could follow them their entire lives.”

NIST’s original documents from Tatt-C mention how tattoos can identify a person’s ritualistic beliefs, religions and interests. After EFF questioned this profiling method, Maas said NIST retracted information about people’s beliefs from their papers, presentations and website.

Cross said this technology could potentially place innocent American citizens under surveillance because of their tattoos. These people do not get to know what category their tattoo places them in, or what assumptions are made from those categories. He said this situation could deny someone a federal position, chance for parole and other opportunities based on surveillance of their tattoo.

The tattoo recognition software is made up of algorithms created by outside companies like the MITRE Corporation. Cross said researchers argue algorithms cannot be biased, but Cross disagrees.

“Algorithms are made by people who put their own biases into these things when they say ‘It’s just tattoo recognition,’ yeah, but who’s putting the meaning in for these tattoos,” Cross said. “Somebody’s doing that and when they do that, they’re making assumptions about it, and because of that, the potential for harm is tremendous.”

Cross said some of the experts cited in NIST’s report are good at identifying tattoos for Hispanic and certain Chinese gangs, but they almost always miss nationalist gangs and one percenter motorcycle gangs. He said if this margin of error gets encoded into the algorithm, the algorithm will have higher hit rates on Asian and Latino suspects, but miss white supremacist, white nationalist and white biker gang suspects.

Cross worked on a surveillance project with a Department of Defense grant that aimed to assist police. The technology took audio and video from public places, and Cross found that some officers shared lewd images from the surveillance, or viewed it as a goldmine to gather information.

He found that engineers do not usually receive the same ethical training around human subjects as researchers or scientists. As a result, Cross said the engineers are not as focused on the potential harm their technology brings to the public.

“I think [NIST], as researchers, they need to take a hard look at how this kind of technology will be used to oppress people and then make a decision whether they want to be involved in that kind of research,” Maass said.

SOURCE: The Webster Journal

Mongols MC: Feds going after clubs colors at racketeering trial

Santa Ana, California. (October 31, 2018) BTN —The feds have called the Mongol Nation "the most violent and dangerous" biker gang in the country, and they're trying an unusual tactic to dismantle them: Stripping them of the trademarked patches that are prized by members and feared by rivals.

A racketeering trial is set to begin in Santa Ana, California, later this week — opening arguments begin Wednesday — in which prosecutors accuse Mongol Nation of operating as an organized criminal enterprise involved in murder, attempted murder, assault, drug-dealing and more.

The Feds are going after the Trademarked colors of the Mongols MC

And prosecutors want to force the organization to forfeit "any and all marks" that include the organization's logo — the word "Mongols" and a drawing of a Genghis Khan-styled rider on a motorcycle.

That caricature is serious business for the Mongols, court papers say.

Higher-ups in the estimated 600-person gang "will frequently bear patches that indicate that they are officers in the enterprise," and they earn those patches through violence and mayhem, prosecutors say.

"The Mongols Gang is a violent, drug trafficking organization that advocates and rewards its members and associates for committing violent crimes, including, and specifically, assaults and murders, on behalf of the gang and in order to promote what the gang terms 'respect,' prosecutors wrote in one court filing.

In another filing, they said the club's 'Mother Chapter' may award a specific Mongols member a 'skull and crossbones' or 'Respect Few Fear None' patch to those members who have committed murder or engaged acts of violence on behalf of the Mongols."

The Feds showing off motorcycles and colors they confiscated from the Mongols MC

The U.S. Attorney's Office for California's Central District has been trying to go after the patches for a decade. Then-U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien first announced the unusual legal bid after 79 members of the gang were indicted in 2008.

“If the court grants our request ... then if any law enforcement officer sees a Mongol wearing his patch, he will be authorized to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back," O'Brien said at the time, according to a McClatchy report.

But that bid and a later one got shot down in court. A federal appeals court gave prosecutors the green light to try again last year. Opening arguments are is set to begin for the expected eight week trial on Wednesday. Prosecutors say they expect to call 96 witnesses detailing the gang's criminal history.

Defense lawyers say the motorcycle group is simply a loose configuration of riders in the Southwest, not an organized criminal enterprise. They also maintain that the government doesn't have the right to seize the patches of members who haven't been involved in any criminal activity.

In court filings, the group's lawyers say they plan to call former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura as an expert witness on the group and its history. Ventura — also a former professional wrestler and actor — was a member of the the group in the 1970s. Defense lawyers also want to call journalist Lisa Ling, who interviewed the group for a CNN documentary in 2015, to testify about the "organization and structure of the club."

The government has objected to both Ventura and Ling being called as witnesses, saying neither is an expert.

SOURCE: NBC News

Bandidos MC: Maximum security prison only option for former member

Moncton, N.B. (October 30, 2018) —A “charismatic” former member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club serving a life sentence for a brutal Toronto-area murder has lost a bid to get out of the highest-security prison on the East Coast.

A New Brunswick judge has ruled that Randolph Brown — once connected to the Bandidos MV — will keep his new “maximum security” status and be housed at the Atlantic Institution near Renous, N.B.

Brown, 47, was handed a life sentence in 2008 with no parole eligibility until June 2016 after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Confiscated vest with Bandidos MC colors 

He had spent much of his time at New Brunswick’s minimum-security Westmoreland Institution before being moved to the nearby medium-security Dorchester Penitentiary in 2017, and then to the Atlantic Institution in August 2018.

Brown, originally from Jackson’s Point, Ont., went to court to fight the reclassification.

Justice Denise LeBlanc of New Brunswick’s Court of Queens Bench described two sides of Brown in her ruling this month. Officials describe him as “charismatic and well-spoken,” with one saying she had always found him personable and easy to talk to. He was described as “a forthcoming and cognizant individual, someone who possessed the ability to succeed.”

But he was also an integral part of Dorchester’s “sub-culture activities, including intimidation, extortion, muscling, assault, trading in and possession and distribution of contraband/unauthorized items, possession of stolen property,” according to LeBlanc’s ruling.

Brown was seen on camera “collecting” items from other inmates, and head-butting another prisoner.

Corrections officials argued his transfer would alleviate “a major hold held over general population offenders and reducing the risk of creating either more associate participation or potential victims of the sub-culture hierarchy.”

The warden felt Brown had needs that required a highly structured environment, the judge said.

“In protecting the safety and security of the institution, I have no alternative but to approve the proposed involuntary transfer to higher security,” the warden said in a report.

In her ruling, LeBlanc said the warden’s decision was reasonable and justified, and she rejected Brown’s bid and ordered him to pay $750 in costs. Brown is one of four men who pleaded guilty in the 2005 death of Shawn Douse, a Keswick, Ont., drug dealer.

Another biker was upset that Douse had been selling cocaine to family members. Brown admitted he stuffed a T-shirt into Douse’s throat to kill him, after he was beaten unconscious.

Douse’s body was found in a Pickering, Ont., field on Dec. 8, 2005. He had been bound and gagged, with a bag over his head, and set on fire.

SOURCE: The Star

Man arrested over Hells Angels T-shirt wins hearing

Edmonton, Canada (October 29, 2018) BTN — A man arrested by security guards at West Edmonton Mall for refusing to remove a Hells Angels support T-shirt has won a hearing with the province’s law enforcement review board.

Paul Sussman claims Edmonton police officers who responded to his 2016 arrest did not take his complaint about the security guards’ conduct seriously, and that he was given the runaround when he later attempted to file a formal complaint.

The Alberta Law Enforcement Review Board (LERB) dismissed the police service’s attempt to have the complaint thrown out as frivolous and vexatious, and took the rare step of awarding Sussman $750 in costs before the matter goes to a full hearing.

Sussman was shopping with his teenage son at the mall on Aug. 28, 2016, when he was approached by mall security for wearing a Hells Angels “support T-shirt.”

Sussman was told to remove the shirt or leave because gang support paraphernalia is against mall policy. He was told if he did not leave he would be removed for trespassing.

Sussman refused because he believed the request was unlawful, the decision states. When security attempted to arrest him, he allegedly became “belligerent and aggressive” and resisted by linking arms with his son to avoid being handcuffed.

Security eventually took him to the ground, arrested him and took him to the mall security office. Two police officers arrived to deal with the case, though no charges were laid in the case.

The officers drove the man and his son to their car. During the ride, Sussman said he wanted to file an assault complaint against the guards but the officers “did not give him the form and did not take his complaint seriously” and told him instead to visit the west division police station.

Sussman went to the station the next day and told an officer at the front desk that he wanted to lay a complaint against mall security. According to the complaint, Sussman was wearing the same shirt and alleged the officer “refused” to help him.

“The appellant (Sussman) was of the opinion that it was because of his shirt,” the decision states. Instead, the west division officer told him to call the police complaint line. When he did, he was told to contact one of the officers who responded to the mall complaint.

Around a year later, Sussman filed formal complaints with city police, claiming the two mall officers and the west division officer failed to properly investigate his complaint. Police Chief Rod Knecht ordered investigations into the complaints but found there was no reasonable likelihood the officers would be convicted of misconduct.

The officer working at west division, however, was given a warning about “providing good customer service to citizens trying to report matters to the front counter.”

Sussman appealed the complaint to the LERB in April. Knecht and the police service sought to have it dismissed as “frivolous and vexatious” but the board disagreed.

The board also ordered each officer to pay Sussman $250, saying costs were warranted because their submissions failed to establish the complaint was made in bad faith and “attacked the appellant unnecessarily and on a personal level.”

The complaint will go to a hearing before the LERB, though no hearing dates have been set. The board hears appeals from both citizens and police officers outside of internal police complaints systems.

SOURCE: Edmonton Journal 

Pittsburgh Mayor defends drunken cops who started fight with Pagans MC members

Pittsburgh, PA (October 27, 2018) BTN — Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto on Friday pushed back against Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala’s characterization of the city police investigation of a brawl between undercover officers and members of the Pagans motorcycle club.

Kopy's Bar in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

Mr. Peduto called Mr. Zappala’s statement that he had problems with police management “disappointing” and “unfortunate,” and said he had not yet decided whether the undercover detectives used appropriate force when they fought with four Pagans in Kopy’s Bar on the South Side on Oct. 12.

Related |Pagans MC: Bar owner says cops would not leave MC members alone

Related |Pagans MC: District attorney waits on critical info from cops 

Related |Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight  

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

“What I saw is troubling, with the actions of escalation of force that didn’t seem to be warranted, but without full evidence of what actually happened, it’s very difficult to make that judgmental call,” Mr. Peduto said. “And a district attorney’s role is to investigate first, then comment; not comment and then do an investigation.”

Mr. Zappala said Thursday that Pittsburgh police initially turned over only a small part of the video evidence  in the case, and that his office did not receive the rest for more than a week. Mr. Peduto said Mr. Zappala received all the evidence he wanted within 48 hours of the request.

“I can understand why he would want information immediately, but some of that had to be obtained by our officers, such as the cameras, the video, and then compiled to be able to give that to him,” Mr. Peduto said. “I think 48 hours is a fair amount of time.”

But Mr. Zappala’s spokesman, Mike Manko, said Friday it took far longer than 48 hours. The DA’s office requested the evidence Oct. 18 and received it Wednesday -- a day after the office was forced to postpone a scheduled preliminary hearings for the Pagans. Additionally, Mr. Manko said, body camera footage was delivered late Thursday afternoon.

“These requests are memorialized in dated emails,” Mr. Manko said.

Mr. Peduto also said Kopy’s Bar was frequented by motorcycle gangs and that area is “suspected of being a major trafficking area of illegal drugs.”

Mr. Manko said police evidence does not support that characterization of the bar, and an attorney for the bar, George R. Farneth II, said Friday it’s simply not true.

“We categorically deny that allegation and would encourage the mayor to come forward with all the evidence he has to support such an allegation,” Mr. Farneth said. “Short of doing that, this is a veiled attempt to cover for a police department for his city that in a lot of respects is out of control, as evidenced by these police officers.”

Mr. Farneth said the bar has not been cited by the Liquor Control Board or has needed to call police for more than a decade. Mr. Farneth said Kopy’s Bar is not frequented by bikers.

“If you go on a regular day of the week, any day of the week, the chances of a biker being in the bar are slim to none,” he said. “It’s locals, everyday common folk.”

Six members of the Pagans motorcycle club were there Oct. 12., and four left in handcuffs. Frank Deluca, Erik Heitzenrater, Bruce Thomas and Michael Zokaites each face several felony charges as a result of the fight, which their attorneys contend was started by intoxicated undercover detectives.

Detectives Brian Burgunder, David Honick, Brian Martin and David Lincoln had been drinking in the bar from 7:33 p.m. until the fight about 12:40 p.m., surveillance video shows.

Police officers are prohibited from drinking alcohol while on duty, but Mayor Peduto said Friday there is an unwritten understanding that undercover officers can drink while on the job to maintain their covers.

“That being said...someone would be expected while doing undercover work to be able to consume while still being able to properly respond,” he said. “And not being in a situation where the intoxication level would jeopardize themselves or other officers. That’s what we’re looking at right now. There isn’t a policy in place, it’s a common sense call.”

Attorneys for the men arrested say each of the undercover detectives drank between 13 and 19 drinks, many on the rocks, before the fight broke out.

The mayor said he’s asked Pittsburgh police Chief Scott Schubert and Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich to create an alcohol policy for undercover officers by looking at how other cities handle the matter.

Mr. Farneth on Friday called on police to be more transparent and said they should release body camera footage from uniformed officers who responded to the fight to resolve any lingering questions about how the incident and subsequent investigation were handled.

The affidavit in the case, written by Detective Burgunder, was not finished and filed in City Court, Downtown, until 1 p.m. Oct. 12 -- nearly 12 hours after the fight. The document was approved by the District Attorney’s office about 11 a.m.

That timeline appears to violate Pittsburgh police policy, which typically requires officers to finish reports before the end of their shifts. Defendants cannot be arraigned or processed at the jail until the police affidavit is filed. Court records show the Pagans were arraigned about 6:40 p.m. Oct. 12.

Pittsburgh police spokesman Chris Togneri would not say Friday whether Detective Burgunder was granted permission to wait to file the paperwork. Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizen Police Review Board, said Friday the end-of-shift policy helps ensure that officers can accurately recall what happened.”

“I think it’s inappropriate that it was filed so late and I believe it’s also contrary to the policy expectation that the report be completed prior to the end of shift, and with the rare exception and with a supervisor's approval,” she said.

SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Pagans MC: Bar owner says cops would not leave MC members alone

Pittsburgh, PA (October 26, 2018) BTN — A notarized statement from Kopy’s bar owner who tended bar the night four Pagan motorcycle club members fought with several heavy drinking undercover cops appears to challenge how Pittsburgh police have described the fight.

The attorney for one of the Pagan's members charged in the fight contends the police officers were drunk and started the fight because the cops didn’t like how the motorcycle club members were dressed.

Related |Pagans MC: District attorney waits on critical info from cops 

Related |Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight  

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

“Our position is that my client was not engaged in any criminal activity, was not the subject of an investigation, but rather was the subject of drunk police officers who didn’t like the way they were dressed,” said Lee Rothman, the attorney for Frank Deluca, who faces charges of aggravated assault, conspiracy and riot along with three others of the Pagan motorcycle club.

Security footage from inside the bar also shows one undercover officer punching Deluca in the head at least a dozen times. The fight occurred about 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 12 at the South Side bar. Four Pagans fought with several undercover Pittsburgh police officers who were at the bar investigating a drug complaint, authorities have said.

Public Safety spokesman Chris Togneri said the department cannot comment on ongoing investigations, though investigators are reviewing all video footage. The incident is being reviewed by the Office of Municipal Investigations and the Citizens Police Review Board.

A court affidavit from Stephen Kopy indicates that the undercover officers came in about 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11 and identified themselves as construction workers. They ordered alcoholic drinks, Kopy wrote. The Pagans came in about 11:30 p.m. and sat at the opposite end of the bar.

“On several occasions, the undercover officers called me over and made statements indicating that they had an issue with the bikers at the other side of the bar,” Kopy wrote. “Each time I discouraged them from taking action.”

Twice before the fight, one of the officers spoke to the Pagans, but Kopy was not certain what was said, he wrote in the affidavit. Shortly before 12:30 a.m. Oct. 12, one officer identified himself as an undercover officer and told Kopy “he liked me and did not want to see anything happen to my bar,” according to the affidavit.

Kopy wrote that the officer said the bikers were dangerous. When he asked for clarification, the officer said the bikers were “staring and pointing at them,” according to the affidavit. He wrote that he did not see the bikers staring or pointing.

One officer asked Kopy what he and the bikers had spoken about, Kopy wrote, and wanted to know if he was associated with the Pagans.

“I was then asked by one of the undercover officers whether I was ‘siding’ with the bikers,” Kopy wrote in the affidavit. “I told them that I was not ‘siding’ with the bikers. I just did not agree with the undercover officers that the bikers were trying to cause trouble.”

Kopy wrote that as the bikers got up to leave, the officers stopped them and began talking to them. He said he called 911 when one of the officers and one of the Pagans began arguing. Uniformed officers arrived, and Kopy wrote that he was hit with pepper spray.

Video from the bar shows a conversation between the undercover police and Pagans beginning cordially. It shows Deluca shaking the hands of two of the officers. Rothman said the incident escalated with officers who “were highly intoxicated and agitated because members of a motorcycle club came in dressed a certain way.”

Rothman contends that the video shows the officers drinking for hours beforehand. He said he counted one who “had four Jack Daniels on the rocks – full glasses – within one hour and never stopped drinking.”

Deluca pushed one of the undercover officers, sparking an all-out brawl. Uniformed officers arrive on scene, called by the undercover officers because they’d been outted as cops, according to the criminal complaint filed against the Pagans.

Deluca, Michael Zokaites, Bruce Thomas and Erik Heitzenrater have been charged in connection to the fight. A preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday was continued until Nov. 6.

The footage shows one officer holding Deluca against the bar while an undercover detective punches him repeatedly in the face. Rothman said Deluca has damage to his orbital bone and elbow and, as a union electrician, is now unable to work.

Kopy’s affidavit also covered the aftermath of the brawl.

Some time later, two of the undercover officers returned to the bar with three or four uniformed officers, a lieutenant and a detective, he wrote.

Kopy wrote that the lieutenant asked if the bikers were regulars, to which he replied they were not. He said the lieutenant asked why he let them into the bar wearing their Pagan club jackets, and Kopy told them he had no reason not to let them in.

The lieutenant asked why Kopy did not have a dress code for his bar, and he responded that he never needed one.

“The lieutenant then stated that ‘this was my fault for letting them in with jackets,’” Kopy wrote. “I responded that the bikers did not cause the fight and the lieutenant then began screaming to me about the bikers being dangerous and referenced that they had gun and that someone could have been shot or killed.”

That would have led to the bar being shut down, Kopy said the lieutenant told him, and he would have to “live with a dead customer on my conscience,” according to the affidavit.

Later, two of the undercover officers asked Kopy if he’d outed them as cops to the bikers, according to the affidavit. Kopy told them he’d been unaware they were law enforcement until just before the fight.

One week later, a city detective came to remove the security camera hard drive and make a copy, Kopy wrote. Kopy had also provided copies to attorneys for the bikers and the Pittsburgh Police Citizens Review Board after they requested them.

The detective told Kopy that during the process the data was lost and the security system would not work.

“Upon stating that the data might be lost, I informed that the (review board) and the bikers’ defense attorney had copies to which (the detective) sounded surprised to hear such news,” Kopy wrote.

Kopy’s affidavit was signed Monday, Oct. 22, along with a notary.

SOURCE: TRIB Live

Bride in White

Pagans MC: District attorney waits on critical info from cops

Pittsburgh, PA (October 25, 2018) BTN — The Allegheny County District Attorney says he is waiting on critical information from Pittsburgh police about a bar fight involving undercover officers and members of the Pagan Motorcycle club. "That's why I got cameras up and down Carson Street because I don't want to go through this nonsense," said Stephen Zappala, Allegheny County district attorney.

 A lot of questions remain over what led to the fight inside Kopy's, and the role of the undercover police officers seen on the video. “I don't know what kind of games these guys are playing, but this is serious stuff," Zappala said. "That's one of the reasons I'm talking with the U.S. attorney.” Zappala says he just received more than a dozen disks of security footage from the night of the fight, nearly two weeks later. “I don't know that they're undercover," Zappala said. "I don't know why they're in the bar.

Related |Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight  

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

We haven't heard from a supervisor that they were on-duty. We haven't heard from a supervisor who the target was, if there was in fact a target.” Attorneys for the four Pagan suspects facing assault charges have criticized the officers conduct, saying they had 40 drinks between them before the fight.

Zappala said he's still waiting on critical information from police, including body camera video from the responding officers. “Controlling a situation or trying to hurt somebody are two totally different things," Zappala said. "This is the second time we've had somebody repeatedly struck in the head. I have a problem with that.”


The Pagan MC members involved in the bar fight are scheduled to be in court next month. Various news sources asked Pittsburgh police to respond to the district attorney's criticism over the handling of the investigation, but a spokesman declined to comment.

SOURCE: WPXI News

No Surrender MC: Founder gets six years in prison

Breda, Netherlands (October 25, 2018) BTN — The founder of the No Surrender motorcycle club has been jailed for six years for assault, extortion and making threats, as well as laundering €1.3 million. Klaas Otto left one of his victims with permanent injuries and threatened to cut off his children’s ears, the district court in Breda heard.

The 51-year-old told another victim that his wife would be raped by members of his club if he refused to pay up. ‘He used the threat of severe violence to force his victims to hand over large sums of money and cars,’ judges said in passing sentence. The court said there was an ‘atmosphere of menace’ surrounding Otto, who denied all charges against him.

Several alleged victims refused to testify because they feared reprisals, but the court found Otto guilty of threatening and mistreating two car dealers. The sentence was lower than the 10 years demanded by prosecutors, partly because the court decided other charges including arson and letting off a hand grenade had not been proven. Judges also took account of the fact that Otto had been the target in a shooting incident and had been detained in custody for 18 months on a charge of threatening a prosecutor, which the court decided was not supported by the evidence.

His incarceration was ‘too long and too severe,’ the court decided. The prosecution service said last December it would seek a nationwide ban on No Surrender similar to the one imposed on rival motorcycle clubs Saturadah and Bandidos.

SOURCE: Dutch News

Pagans MC: Attorneys say new video shows cops started bar fight

Pittsburgh, PA (October 23, 2018) BTN — Four members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club were all charged after a brawl at Kopy’s Bar on the South Side earlier this month. They are Frank DeLuca, Eric Heitzenrater, Bruce Thomas and Michael Zokaites. New video was released by their attorneys on Tuesday.

Screenshot of the bar fight - Photo credit: KDKA

Before the brawl, you can see DeLuca reaching out to shake hands with undercover officers. “Our clients are minding their own business at the bar trying to ignore them.

Related |Pagans MC: The cops were drunk and started the fight

The officers are repeatedly going over, tapping them, touching them, trying to engage them,” said attorney Wendy Williams. The attorneys believe things escalated due to the amount of alcohol they say the undercover officers were drinking. “The main aggressor in this incident is seen drinking a fifth and a half of Jack Daniels in shots over the course of four to five hours,” said Williams. “One of the officers brandished a firearm.


He could barely stand. He was wobbly. Displayed a firearm to one of the defendants,” said attorney Martin Dietz. “After this melee occurred, all seen on video, my client was restrained by four, possibly six officers and punched in the face after hair being pulled back and neck being pinched over 23 times in face and head,” said attorney Lee Rothman.

 As for Thomas and Heitzenrater:

 “My review of video shows he took no aggressive stance, no aggressive actions and violently thrown to the ground unprovoked,” said attorney Thomas Will. “My client absolutely engaged in no aggressive behavior and he was what we call sucker-punched twice by an undercover detective,’ said Dietz.

 This case has been continued until Nov. 16.

SOURCE: KDKA2