Members of the Mongols MC pose for a group picture in 1986
Thursday, July 7, 2016
More counts added to indictment -Bandidos MC
In an indictment partially unsealed Thursday, reputed vice president and San Antonio resident John Xavier Portillo - already facing racketeering charges with alleged president Jeffrey Fay Pike of Houston and sergeant at arms Justin Cole Froster of San Antonio -- is charged with murder in the Jan. 31, 2002, shooting death of Robert Lara. Lara, 24, was gunned down Jan. 31, 2002, at a rest stop in Atascosa County.
F.B.I. agents stand by a home located at on San Antonio's South East Side
The new indictment also added a fourth defendant, Fredrick "Fast Fred" Cortez , alleging he was one of the shooters in Lara's killing.
Several years ago, Richard Steven Merla, 41, confessed to shooting Lara at a rest stop in Atascosa County, authorities said. The shooting was said to be in retaliation for the death of one of Merla's fellow Bandidos motorcycle club members three months earlier.
Bandidos MC items confiscated by Texas authorities
Merla is not a named defendant in the new federal indictment.
Merla received 40 years in prison in 2005 after pleading no contest to a murder charge in the death of Robert Quiroga, a retired boxer whom Merla repeatedly stabbed in northwest San Antonio a year earlier. Merla claimed it was in self-defense.
After Quiroga's killing, Portillo and other Bandidos held a press conference distancing the club from Merla and said Merla was not a Bandido, news stories show.
SOURCE: My SanAntonio
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Ten Hells Angels arrested in Edmonton
Edmonton, Canada, (June 8, 2016) Ten people have been arrested after an investigation into the Edmonton’s Hells Angels motorcycle club led by the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT).
“Project Al-Wheels” allege the club’s members and associates were involved in theft, re-vinning and trafficking of various stolen trailers and recreational vehicles. Re-vinning refers to the process of giving vehicles false ownership histories and identification numbers.
The investigation dates back to October 2015. A total of 15 search warrants were carried out in Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Alberta Beach, Gunn, Onoway, Morinville, Legal, Ryley, Sherwood Park, Red Deer, St. Albert and Langley, B.C.
Over $1 million in stolen property and 21 firearms were seized in the investigation, including:
- 17 Travel trailers
- 3 Pick-up trucks
- 6 All-terrain vehicles
- 1 Snowmobile
- 2 Dirt bikes
- 18 Rifles
- 2 Shotguns
- 1 Handgun
ALERT spokesman with some of the items seized in the investigation
Officers believe the vehicles were stolen from houses and businesses and then fraudulently registered. They would then be sold amongst Hells Angels members and associates at steep discounts, ALERT said.
Police believe in some cases insurance fraud was also being committed.
Some of the weapons seized during the raids
The 10 people arrested are facing upwards of 300 criminal charges and officers believe more arrests will be made.
The following people were arrested in connection with the investigation:
- Lawrence Cotter, 41,of Alberta Beach
- Bobby Dodman, 42, of Red Deer
- Christopher Escott, 32, of Edmonton
- Mark Funk, 38, of St. Albert
- Laura Hawkridge, 41, of Alberta Beach
- Jacob Jenkins, 38, of Gunn
- Kane Laplante-Racine, 29 of Strathcona County
- Frank Preeper, 42, of Morinville
- Julien Roussel, 58, of Edmonton
- Anthony Shaw, 56, no fixed address, arrested in Grande Prairie
SOURCE: Global News