Loners MC clubhouse have some concerned

Cornwall, Ontario (January 26, 2019) BTN – There may be at least one motorcycle club that has quietly set up a clubhouse in Cornwall, in the heart of Le Village.

According to the building’s owner Wolfe Vracar, the Loners Motorcycle Club moved into its current location in the basement of a building on Montreal Road just over a year ago, in December of 2017.

A few motorcycles parked outside the door believed to be leased by the Loners MC in Cornwall, Ont. 

Originally founded in Ontario decades ago, the Loners is a one-percenter club and advertises the fact by including a “1%” symbol alongside its main patch. Other clubs that claim to be one percenters include the Hells Angles, Satan’s Choice, the Lobos among many others.

“The term one percenter derives from the belief that the remaining 99 per cent (of motorcycle riders) are law-abiding citizens,” explained Cornwall Community Police Service Staff Sgt. Rob Archambault, of the criminal investigation division.

A local news source began investigating the possibility of a Loners MC clubhouse in Cornwall after being told by another tenant in the building who has since moved out. That tenant said the Loners’ presence downstairs was the reason for the departure. 

The new source also spoke to some of the residential tenants of the building, who said they didn’t know much about the motorcycle club in the basement other than the fact they could be very noisy.

Vracar acknowledged he had rented the basement to the Loners MC.

When asked why he was comfortable having a one-percenter club as a tenant, Vracar said he tries not to prejudge people, and noted they have been good tenants for the past year. He refuted the concerns of his former tenant, saying he believed that tenant left for business reasons.

“I could put them out any time that I want, but they have been very respectful and there haven’t been any issues of any kind. I don’t paint anybody black until they do it themselves,” said Vracar.

On Wednesday, someone answered the door to the basement unit said to be leased by the Loners. He confirmed he was a club member, but said he did not know where the person who signed the lease was or when that person would return to the clubhouse.

He was also asked to pass along an interview request. Word of Vracar’s tenants came up as CCPS was increasing its enforcement efforts and officer training to deal with motorcycle clubs as part of a new initiative that has been dubbed “Project One Percent.”

In late November, the CCPS received a nearly $100,000 from the provincial government’s Civil Remedies Grant Program to help fund Project One Percent in Cornwall. The official description of the initiative’s goal was to “help to decrease outlaw motorcycle gang activity.”

“We are using this money for a variety of different things within the service and within the community,” said Archambault. “We are going to provide training to our officers in recognizing different criminal elements, we will also be reaching out to our community and business partners in the community to provide them with the ability to observe, notice and report criminal activity. ”

When asked outright if the CCPS was aware of any one per cent motorcycle club in Cornwall, including the Loners’ possible presence on Montreal Road, Archambault would not comment on any specifics, but said CCPS is aware of the presence of biker gangs in the city.

“We are aware of many possible locations where motorcycle gangs might be frequenting, but we are not at liberty to say what the locations are that we suspect,” he said, explaining that to share any detailed information or confirm knowledge of a specific club could jeopardize any investigations that might currently be underway.

Archambault said motorcycle clubs can be involved in the same illicit activities that other organized crime groups are. This includes smuggling everything from drugs to humans, which is a prominent issue in Cornwall.

“In Cornwall, we suspect the main source of their criminal activity is likely drug trafficking,” he said.

The CCPS’ street crime unit has the issue well in-hand, said Archambault, and there’s no reason for the public to be worried. But the police are encouraging anyone who does see something suspicious or concerning to call and tell them about it.

SOURCE: Standard Freeholder

Member of Pagan's MC found dead

Spring Hill, Florida (January 17, 2019) BTN – Pasco County sheriff’s detectives say a documented member of the Pagan's Motorcycle Club was murdered in Spring Hill. His body was discovered in his home's driveway Wednesday morning.

Detectives say 32-year-old James William Earl died of a gunshot wound. His body was discovered in the driveway of 14383 Glenrock Road in Shady Hills.

The sheriff’s office says it’s not known if the murder had anything to do with the Pagan's Motorcycle Club activities. A local leader of the Pagan's, Glenn Buzze, wouldn’t appear on camera but said he was saddened by Earl’s death. “My best friend was murdered,” said Buzze.

He said Earl was a Navy veteran and got engaged on Christmas Eve. Buzze said he doesn’t know why someone would kill Earl.

Neighbors we spoke with told us there is known drug activity in the neighborhood and they often hear gunshots in the night.

“When I hear the guns my grandchildren run in the house because i tell them to come in when they hear the guns. You never know where the bullets going to go,” said a neighbor who didn’t want us to use her name or show her face. So far the sheriff’s office hasn’t named any suspects as the investigation continues.

SOURCE: FOX 13 News

Witness says he hired Hells Angels MC for hit

Vancouver, B.C. (January 16, 2019) BTN – A key government witness at the trial of Mexican Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman testified in New York this week that he met with Canadian Hells Angels on behalf of the cartel to arrange the hit of a drug dealer.

The witness, Guzman’s former right-hand man Alex Cifuentes, said the hit on the dealer was never completed, according to the New York Times and other media outlets covering the trial. Cifuentes, a Colombian, provided no details of who in the motorcycle club he contacted.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Wednesday that the testimony about a link between Canadian Hells Angels and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel is not startling news to law enforcement.

“It is no surprise that this information is coming to light, as the arms of the Hells Angels, especially Canadian Hells Angels, are far-reaching locally, nationally, and internationally,” Winpenny said. “The scope of their criminal involvement in the drug trade and other ventures is global and, as we’ve seen time and time again, there is almost always violence associated to it.”

In his 2018 book Hunting El Chapo, former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Andrew Hogan described Guzman’s deep links to Canada and B.C. in particular.

Hogan said Sinaloa cocaine would be moved across the Arizona border and up to the Washington-B.C. border “where the loads would be thrown on private helicopters. The birds would jump the border and drop the coke out among the tall lodgepole pines of British Columbia.”

In this Jan. 19, 2017 photo, authorities escort Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

“Chapo’s men had connections with sophisticated Iranian organized-crime gangs in Canada,” Hogan wrote. “A network of outlaw bikers — primarily Hells Angels — were also moving his cocaine overland and selling it to retail dealers throughout the country.”

Hogan also said he and the other officers working on the special task force to capture Guzman “were caught off guard by his deep infiltration of Canada.”

He noted that Guzman had a young Sinaloa man set up as a college student in Vancouver in about 2009 “to run his drug distribution and money collection throughout Canada.”

The Vancouver Sun reported on some of Guzman’s cartel connections in B.C. in 2014. His cartel contacts in Metro Vancouver were dropping off hockey bags stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars destined for Guzman’s U.S. bank accounts. 

One of the B.C. men later convicted in California in the Sinaloa case was connected to Montreal’s West End gang and some B.C. Hells Angels, according to court documents obtained at the time.

Former RCMP Supt. Pat Fogarty said Wednesday that the Hells Angels had “a continuous working relationship” with other Canadian organized crime groups and with Mexican and other cartels.

Through their connections, the groups “facilitated the transport, distribution and financial requirements for cocaine distribution in Canada,” said Fogarty, now CEO of the Fathom Research Group.

Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello did not respond to a request for a comment on the testimony at the Guzman trial.

SOURCE: Vancouver Sun

Murder trial begins for Kinfolk MC member

El Paso, Texas  (January 15, 2019) — A murder trial began Tuesday morning in a deadly motorcycle club shooting that killed an El Paso chapter president of the Bandidos.

Javier Gonzalez, a reputed member of the Kinfolk Motorcycle Club, is on trial in 34th District Court on organized crime and murder charges.

Gonzalez is accused of opening fire during a biker fight inside Mulligan's Chopped Hog bar on George Dieter Drive on July 30, 2017.

Juan Martinez Jr., the 61-year-old president of an El Paso chapter of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, was shot and later died at a hospital. Three other men were also shot.

Related | El Paso bar fight leads to Bandidos arrest

Martinez, nicknamed "Compa," had been described by friends as a kindhearted businessman. He was owner of J. Martinez and Associates, an accredited disability representative firm that helps clients get Social Security benefits.

Jurors saw a video of a deadly 2017 El Paso biker bar brawl Tuesday, the first day of a murder trial in a shooting that killed a local chapter president of the Bandidos. The shooting was part of a club rivalry between the long-established Bandidos Motorcycle Club and the newer Kinfolk Motorcycle Club, according to court testimony.

Javier Gonzalez, a reputed member of the Kinfolk, faces organized crime and murder charges in trial that is being conducted under increased security at the El Paso County Courthouse. Bags were scanned and spectators had to pass a second set of metal detectors before entering the 34th District courtroom of Judge William E. Moody.

Gonzalez is accused of opening fire during a fight inside Mulligan's Chopped Hog bar on George Dieter Drive on the night of July 30, 2017. Juan Martinez Jr., the 61-year-old president of an El Paso chapter of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, was shot several times and later died at a hospital.

Martinez — nicknamed "Compa," short for "Compadre" — was owner of J. Martinez and Associates, an accredited disability representative firm that helps clients get Social Security benefits. Bandidos members Ballardo Salcido and Daniel Villalobos and Juan Miguel Vega-Rivera, vice president of the Organized Chaos MC, which police describe as a Bandidos support club, also were shot.

"This case isn't about the Kinfolk versus the Bandidos. It's really about the law against violence and murder," state prosecutor Rebecca Tarango said in court. Gonzalez's lawyers, Dolph Quijano Jr. and Omar Carmona, suggested that Gonzalez fired in defense of Kinfolk members being beaten during a fight.

"Can gang members be victims of crime? Yes. Can gang members defend themselves? Yes," Carmona said during opening statements.

Bar brawl video

El Paso police gang investigator Francisco "Frank" Balderrama testified that the confrontation was filmed by several security cameras at Mulligan's Chopped Hog, a known Bandidos hangout. Prior to the shooting, photos presented in court showed that Gonzalez, Manuel "Manny" Gallegos, Derek Mercado and other Kinfolk members were nearby at Jack's Beach House bar on Montwood Drive.

The Bandidos were at Mulligan's Chopped Hog after a motorcycle run when Gallegos and Mercado showed up. Gallegos was a former Bandido. Mercado was filmed making a phone call outside, which investigators later traced to Gonzalez, Balderrama said. The video showed Gallegos and Mercado order a beer and soon being confronted by seven to eight Bandidos. Gallegos allegedly punched Martinez, and "then it was on," Tarango said.

The video showed a melee, with bikers fighting between bar tables, punches flying, a biker picking up a bar stool and Kinfolk motorcycles arriving outside. Other Kinfolk then enter the bar, including a Kinfolk biker wearing a helmet who opens fire with a gun. Several men fall to the floor and a man is dragged out of the bar.

"There are eight people beating the crap out of two Kinfolk," Quijano said during cross-examination of Balderrama, mentioning that the Bandidos' violent reputation is an issue in the trial.

Police investigators allegedly found Gonzalez's motorcycle left behind at the scene.

They also found the helmet, which allegedly had DNA evidence linked to Gonzalez, and a gun found in the backyard of a home day care, Tarango said.

Gonzalez was arrested three days later at his parent's home by the Gang Unit and SWAT team, with help from other law enforcement agencies, police said.

Gallegos was charged with engaging in organized criminal activity-assault for his alleged role in the bar fight, police previously have said.

Kinfolk MC

There are three major motorcycle clubs in El Paso — the Bandidos, which have been in the city for more than 50 years; the Kinfolk, which began in 2016; and the Mongols, a recent arrival, Balderrama said. The Kinfolk MC was established by former Bandidos unhappy with the leadership of their former club, Balderrama said.

The Kinfolk have at least 15 members in El Paso and use the colors black and gray, and its emblem is a cowboy holding a gun behind his back, Balderrama said. The Bandidos, with their Mexican bandit logo, have been around since the 1960s and are one of the world's most infamous motorcycle clubs, with chapters around the globe.

The Kinfolk and Bandidos are considered "1 percenter" clubs — what law enforcement term outlaw motorcycle gangs. "They only believe in the laws they want to obey," Balderrama said.

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