Gypsy Joker MC members face charges

Portland, OR (February 1, 2019) BTN  – Six members and associates of the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club have been charged by a federal grand jury, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office - District of Oregon.

The five-count superseding indictment includes charges of racketeering, kidnapping and murder.

From left to right top row: Kenneth Earl Hause, Mark Leroy Dencklau and Earl Deverle Fisher. From left to right bottom: Ryan Anthony Negrinelli and Jospeh Duane Folkerts.

Those charged include:

Kenneth Earl Hause, 61 of Aumsville, who is the National President

Mark Leroy Dencklau, 58 of Woodburn

Earl Deverle Fisher, 48 of Gresham

Ryan Anthony Negrinelli, 36 of Gresham

Jospeh Duane Folkerts 61 of Battleground

A sixth defendant was not named. All are members and associates of the club and are charged with conspiring to conduct and participate in the activities of a racketeering enterprise.

With the exception of Hause, the U.S. Attorney's Office said the other five defendants also face charges of murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping in aid of racketeering resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death and conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death for the June 30 to July 2, 2015 kidnapping and murder of Robert Huggins.

Huggins was a former Gypsy Joker MC member and resident of southeast Portland. The five defendants are accused of killing Huggins to maintain and increase their positions in the criminal club.

“According to the indictment, since at least 2003, the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle club have engaged in a wide range of crimes, including kidnapping, murder, drug dealing, robbery, extortion, and witness tampering,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.

“Thanks to the efforts of ATF, the Portland Police Department, and federal prosecutors, we will work hard to hold accountable the leaders and members of this brutal and highly organized gang for their alleged crimes.”

“Kenneth Hause is the leader of a criminal organization that, through its many chapters and support clubs, has sowed violence and intimidation throughout the Pacific Northwest. This is an organization whose members and associates pride themselves on living outside the law and use kidnapping, assault, murder and other forms of violence to extend and maintain their power. 

Kenneth Hause and his co-defendants will soon face the consequences of their crimes thanks to a seamless partnership of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies,” said U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy J. Williams.

The superseding indictment states the Gypsy Joker MC preserves, promotes and protects its power, territory and profits through violence and intimidation as well as enriches its members through extortion, robbery and the distribution of narcotics.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Gypsy Joker MC is known for using fear through its members and associates as a tactic for establishing and maintaining its power.

Additionally, the club oversees several support clubs in both Oregon and Washington, including the Road Brothers Northwest Motorcycle Club, Solutions Motorcycle Club, Northwest Veterans Motorcycle Club, High-Side Riders, and the Freedom Fellowship Motorcycle Club.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Dencklau, Fisher and Tiler Evan Pribbernow, 37 of Portland, were first charged in a four-count indictment that was unsealed in July 2018.  Pribbernow pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to conduct and participate in the activities of a racketeering enterprise on November 7, 2018. Dencklau and Fisher are detained pending trial.

Along with the criminal charges brought against the five named defendants in the superseding indictment, the government is seeking forfeiture of a property in Salem that is used as a Gypsy Joker MC clubhouse.

SOURCE: FOX12 Oregon

Blue Angels MC members threaten rival club

Leeds, West Yorkshire (January 30, 2019) BTN – Leeds Crown Court heard the defendants were wearing “motorcycle club attire” when they turned up at the house and began “shouting and bawling” and making threats.  Howard Shaw, prosecuting, said the complainant - known as ‘Spike’ - had previously been a member of the Blue Angels until leaving the club in 2015.

Explaining the background to the incident on July 27 last year, the prosecutor said: “It appears some kind of falling out went on and he was warned in 2015 not to associate with any motorcycle club ever again and, according to the complainant, was assaulted.” Mr Shaw said the man then joined the rival Mongrel Mob club. He added: “He claims to have been high up within the ranks of the club, becoming the European Secretary.”

The court heard the four men turned up outside the property in Beeston around 9.30pm in a Nissan Navara while the man was at his home with family and friends. Mr Shaw said: “The four defendants were wearing motorcycle club attire and then engaged in shouting, bawling, threats and finger pointing. “They did not enter the garden but their conduct was such that the complainant threw out, from the first floor window, his motorcycle jacket which had the insignia of his own club. “With that, the defendants left and drove off.”

Mr Shaw said the man only contacted police because there was “an unwritten rule” among motorcycle clubs that no such visits would be paid to members’ homes when family were present. All four men were arrested and refused to comment. They were later identified at an identification procedure. The men were initially charged with robbery.

The complainant refused to attend court to give evidence against when they were due to go on trial on Monday The defendants pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour and were made the subject of 12-month community orders. 

Recorder Richard Thyne said: “The offence is aggravated on any view by the fact that it was planned, you were in a group, there was a history of bad feeling and it was in a residential street at night. “Each of you in the past has been capable of serious criminality and your conduct on that evening has to be viewed in that context.” 

Those sentenced were: David Hansbury, 49, of Midland Road, Hyde Park, Leeds.

He was made the subject of a two-month electronically-tagged curfew order. Hansbury has previous convictions for robbery, affray and firearms offences. 

David Torr, 55, of Miles Hill Avenue, Scott Hall, Leeds. Ordered to do 40 hours of unpaid work. He has convictions for robbery, assault and possession of an offensive weapon. 

Steven Clayton, 59, of Meadow Road, Bradford, Ordered to do 45 hours of unpaid work. He has convictions for affray, wounding and possession of an offensive weapon.

Martin Booth, 48, of Crook Farm Caravan Park, Shipley. Ordered to do 45 hours of unpaid work. Booth has previous convictions for possession of a prohibited firearm.

SOURCE: Yorkshire Evening Post

Hells Angel MC member pleads guilty

Staunton, Virginia (January 29, 2019) BTN – In a surprising development, three members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club and a prospect pleaded guilty Tuesday in connection with a September ambush at the Hometown Inn that saw a rival motorcycle club member shot and another beaten.

Both men survived the attack.

In Augusta County Circuit Court on Tuesday, one of the alleged shooters, Anthony Milan, 28, of East Elmhurst, New York, a Hells Angel prospect at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty to malicious wounding by a mob and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Related | Pagans MC: We were ambushed by the Hells Angels MC

Related | Hells Angels MC members charged with violence

"He was a triggerman," Augusta County prosecutor Tim Martin said.

Milan was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Three other defendants, none of them one of the two shooters, were sentenced to four years in prison. Nathaniel A. Villaman, 28, of East Brunswick, New Jersey; Joseph Anthony Paturzo, 52, of the Bronx, New York; and Richard E. West, 53, of Baldwin, New York, all pleaded guilty to malicious wounding by a mob.

The second shooter is alleged to be Dominick J. Eadicicco, 48, of Staten Island, New York. He is scheduled for trial March 18.

Martin said he was pleased with the guilty verdicts, and noted: The shooting victim was not cooperating with authorities and wouldn't be a witness at trial.

Motions in the case were scheduled to be heard Tuesday before the plea deals were reached.

Two other Hells Angels members who were not charged in the attack face drug and gun charges.

Earlier evidence showed ambush

Motel video surveillance viewed at an earlier bond hearing in October showed five Hells Angels were lying in wait after two members of the rival Pagans Motorcycle Club were spotted across the street at the Pilot Travel Center during the early-morning hours of Sept. 10.

Roughly 90 minutes later, shortly before 3 a.m. as the two Pagans pulled into the motel parking lot on their motorcycles, an ambush was unleashed, video evidence showed.

One of the Pagans was shot, the other knocked off his motorcycle and beaten with a hammer.

Prior to the shooting, after the two Pagans were seen at the travel center, one of the motorcycle club members rousted four others from their rooms at the Hometown Inn, which is near Greenville.

After the men took off their Hells Angels gear and changed into different clothing, one of the Hells Angels kept close tabs on the Pagans across the street with binoculars. Another was seen holding an iPad in their direction as he presumably filmed them, video evidence showed. Other Hells Angels club members were nearby.

When the Pagans went to the Hometown Inn, the clerk, unaware there were now rival gang members registered at the motel, gave them a room next to one of three rooms rented by the Hells Angels, according to evidence.

As the Pagans pulled up to their room, one following the other, the second rider was knocked off his motorcycle as it was still moving. The rider in front wiped out as he attempted to escape the ambush, skidding his bike to the ground. As he ran, two Hells Angels opened fire on him, video showed. An investigator testified four to five gunshots were fired.

The victim was struck once in the lower left side of his back. He survived the shooting and was released from the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville after a week-long stay, according to testimony.

The beating victim was not seriously injured.

Both victims were members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club out of southern Virginia, the sheriff's office said.

Seven suspects were arrested at the scene. Two guns and a shell casing were recovered at the motel by investigators.

At a press conference held after the shooting, Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith said both groups were passing through the area following an unidentified convention.

SOURCE: News Leader

Hells Angel MC member arrested after car ramming

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.

SOURCE: Daily Journal

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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