Franklin, Indiana (January 28, 2019) BTN – About 57 pounds
of marijuana were found in a Franklin home early Saturday morning after police
were called to the neighborhood because a vehicle was repeatedly ramming a
parked car in a driveway.
The incident, which got the attention of neighbors and required
the SWAT team come to the scene, unfolded in the Franklin Lakes neighborhood
off U.S. 31 beginning at 2 a.m. Saturday. A resident called police to report
that someone was repeatedly ramming a vehicle parked in a neighbor’s driveway,
and the parked vehicle was eventually forced into the garage, damaging
motorcycles that were parked inside, a Franklin Police Department report said.
After an hours-long incident, including getting a search
warrant, police arrested Jamie Ray Harper on
four felony charges — dealing marijuana, possession of methamphetamine,
possession of a controlled substance and possession of a restricted drug
injection device, as well as a misdemeanor charge of possession of
paraphernalia.
Another resident, Christopher P. Tinney, 46, was arrested on
charges of possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia, both
misdemeanors.
Police saw the damaged garage door and could smell
marijuana, the report said.
Harper is known to police as a member of the Hells Angels
Motorcycle Club, and the Johnson County SWAT team was called to the home as a
safety precaution, the report said.
Police searched the home and found four large vacuum-sealed
bags of marijuana. Together, they weighed 57 pounds, the report said. A glass
pipe, scales, plastic baggies, syringes, vials labeled as testosterone and
methamphetamine were also found in the home.
Harper was released from the Johnson County jail on $7,000
bond. Tinney, of Edinburgh, was
held on $2,000 bond.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
