Hells Angels want clubhouse back

Haarlem, Amsterdam (February 7, 2019) BTN — The Hells Angels Haarlem Foundation fights Tuesday morning at the Council of State the closure of their home base at the Baljuwslaan.

Hells Angels MC Clubhouse in Haarlem

The Haarlem motorcycle club has stepped to the Council of State to have the closure of the building undone.

Mayor Jos Wienen decided in 2017 that the clubhouse of the Hells Angels had to be closed. According to Wienen, the reason to close the building was - firearms and drugs were found in a raid – and are very convincing. 

The club does not agree with the Mayor, who refuses reopening of the building

But according to the lawyer for the Hells Angels, the 'bad apples' have been removed from the club and the clubhouse could be opened again. A decision must be made within 6 weeks. The foundation claims that it has not been proven that the public order is disrupted by the reopening of the club house.

SOURCE:  HaarlemsWeekblad

Cop and firefighter ringleaders in drug ring

Middletown, NY  (February 6, 2019) BTN — A Middletown firefighter and a retired Spring Valley police officer were among the dozens arrested as part of a sweep of allegedly drug dealing bikers in Orange County Tuesday.

Authorities say more than 20 people were taken into custody when search warrants were executed at 15 locations in connection with two separate drug rings, with the same man -- fire Lieutenant Paul Young -- at the center of both.

Related | New York State Police Press Release

In all, 29 people were targeted for arrest, and investigators say leaders of the drug rings were so brazen that they sometimes met at the fire house.

Officials say the investigation, dubbed "Operation Bread, White and Blues," centered on several motorcycle organizations that allegedly distributed cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana and steroids.

The suspects were identified as:

--Paul Smith, 48, of Deerpark

--Robert Dunham, 46, of Middletown

--Marquis Gable, 34, of Nyack

--John Beltempo, 49, of New Windsor

--Kenneth Nunez, 39, of Spring Valley

--Garry Michel, 48, of Wallkill

--Joel Gamble, 44, of Cuddebackville

--Samuel Marino, 30, of Campbell Hall

--Arthur Mays, 30, of Middletown

--George Thomas, 61, of Bloomingburg

--David Lebel, 55, of Middletown

--Jennifer Peterson, 46, of Chester

--Vincenza Ferrante, 35, of New Windsor

--Shawn Daniels, 52, of Monroe

--Salvatore DiStefano, 36, of Westtown

--Melissa Delrosso, 35, of Middletown

--Raymond Chong, 49, of Middletown

--Tara Schoonmaker, 48, of Wurtsboro

--Crystal Crozier, 36, of Middletown

--Donald Johnston, 46, of Middletown

--Anthony Fields, 44, of Middletown

--Desmon Pierson, 36, of Middletown

--Dominick Guardino, 55, of Middletown

--Sunshine Wall, 40, of Cuddebackville

--Nicholas Ciccone, 47, of Port Jervis

--Charles Kavanaugh, 31, of Newburgh

--Gary Caldwell, 33, of Wappingers

--Justin Antona, 27, of Slate Hill

--Andrew Bendig, 23, of Middletown

The drugs reportedly came from both domestic and foreign sources, with the suspect allegedly selling the drugs throughout Orange County.

Most raided locations were in Orange County, but one location where the bikers allegedly purchased the drugs was at the Warren Hills apartment complex in Nyack, Rockland County. Authorities say they were then sold in Orange County.

State police, DEA agents and the FBI agents executed the warrants. Law enforcement officials recovered more than $200,000 in cash, 25 handguns, one assault rifle, multiple rifles, 10 vehicles, two motorcycles, more than 2.5 pounds of cocaine and 1,300 Fentanyl pills.

Authorities say Smith, a paid lieutenant of the City of Middletown Fire Department, has been charged with crimes including operating as a major trafficker as the alleged ringleader of both operations, working in tandem with Dunham.

Gamble and Michel, also charged with crimes including operating as major trafficker, are alleged to have been "profiteers" in the conspiracies to sell cocaine and narcotics pills. It is alleged that it was Gamble's role to provide cocaine to other members of the conspiracy, while Michel was to sell narcotic pills that were marketed to buyers as containing oxycodone but which actually contained fentanyl.

The pills were colored, stamped, and marked to appear to be oxycodone pills.

Beltempo previously worked for the Village of Spring Valley Police Department, the Orange County Sheriff's office and the Town of Wallkill Police Department.

SOURCE:  ABC7 

Alleged Montréal Hells Angel member nabbed

Montréal, Québec  (February 6, 2019) BTN — An alleged member of the Hells Angels’ Montreal chapter is expected to appear before a judge at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday after having avoided arrest in an organized crime investigation for 10 months.

In April last year, the Sûreté du Québec alleged Daniel-André Giroux was a member of the gang’s Montreal chapter, which is now more than four decades old. The SQ had just arrested dozens of people in Project Objection, a lengthy investigation into four drug trafficking networks throughout Quebec that had tentacles that reached into Ontario and New Brunswick.

Giroux, 48, was one of several men who could not be found when members of the Escouade nationale de répression du crime organisé (ENRCO) carried out arrests and search warrants. On Tuesday, the Sûreté du Québec tweeted that Giroux was arrested in Dominican Republic and that he is expected to be formally charged at the Montreal courthouse on Wednesday. The provincial police force noted that Giroux was on Quebec’s 10 most wanted list before the arrest was made.

Giroux faces five charges in Project Objection including two counts related to drug trafficking, another two alleging he committed crimes for the benefit of a criminal organization and conspiracy.

He was charged on an indictment along with 11 other people, including three other full-patch members of the biker gang; Michel (Sky) Langlois, Louis Matte and Stéphane Maheu. In October, Maheu, a member of the gang’s South chapter, ended his run on the lam and pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, gangsterism and conspiracy on the same day he made his first court appearance and was sentenced to a six-year prison term, the longest sentence in Project Objection so far.

SOURCE: The MontrealGazette

Outlaws MC member can't have job back

Tampa, FL (February 5, 2019) BTN — A federal arbitrator says Hillsborough County was justified in firing a Fire Rescue medic who belonged to the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, noting the negative attention his membership brought the county.

Clinton Neal Walker, 35, of Bradenton, was fired a year ago after an internal investigation concluded he had “unwavering loyalty” to the Outlaws, long considered the state’s dominant motorcycle club.

He was the first Hillsborough employee to be investigated for gang activity under a series of county ordinances that prohibit membership in any organization the state or federal government considers criminal, including the Outlaws St. Petersburg Chapter where Walker was a member.

Arbitrator Charlotte Gold released her ruling in mid-January, ending a year-long fight by the local chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters to save Walker’s job. Her report provided new insight into biker gang culture within the county’s fire department and throughout the Tampa Bay area.

“HCFR employees, including chiefs and a fire medic, attended MC (motorcycle club) events,” Gold wrote, and “many of its members were ex-military.”

Walker earned a Bronze Star, among other medals and awards, while in the U.S. Marine Corps. And as a county firefighter he was awarded a Medal of Valor. 

But Walker also had a long disciplinary history and “conducted himself in a manner that was detrimental to the department,” Gold wrote.

“The conclusion is inescapable that he affected the county’s standing in the community,’’ Gold wrote in her report. “His behavior ultimately reflected poorly on the county and his profession in general.”

Walker testified he had resigned from the Outlaws in October 2016, before the county issued a directive prohibiting all employees from “being a member of or voluntarily participating with any outside gang, as defined in the FBI’s 2015 National Gang Report.” The ban came two months after Walker was arrested in Key West for throwing the first punch in a bar fight that left two employees injured and involved as many as 15 other Outlaws, one wearing a T-shirt with a swastika on it and others who used racial slurs.

Walker ultimately negotiated a plea deal for the Key West fight and received a paid suspension from the county for 30 days. He was still serving that suspension when now-retired Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Captain James Costa, then president of the Outlaws St. Petersburg chapter, was shot by members of the rival 69ers Motorcycle Club while riding his motorcycle in south Hillsborough in July 2017. 

According to the report, Costa fired back. The shooting has since been tied to the shooting death of another Outlaw, Paul Anderson, in December 2017.

Walker was one of about 10 Outlaws who got a call from Costa and another Hillsborough County Fire Rescue medic telling them that Costa was being taken to a medical center in Manatee County with bullet wounds. 

Though he wasn’t on duty, Walker dressed in his Fire Rescue uniform and accompanied Costa into the hospital, taking his motorcycle vest with Outlaw insignia and initially refusing to turn it over to law enforcement.

“By wearing his HCFR t-shirt at the hospital, he gained favor for himself in violation of the county’s uniform regulations,” Gold wrote in her report. “He then proceeded to place the interests of a friend and mentor — an individual who continued a strong relationship with a motorcycle gang — over and above those of law enforcement.”

According to the report, Fire Rescue management has known about both Walker and Costa’s membership in the Outlaws since about 2008. Costa joined the Outlaws in 2002, and recruited Walker while working as his supervisor in Sun City Center’s Fire Station 28.

The new rules, and the ensuing investigation into Walker’s conduct, happened as a wave of bar brawls, bad behavior and execution-style killings between rival biker gangs swept across the Tampa Bay area, implicating firefighters in Hillsborough, Polk and Pasco counties.

SOURCE:  Tampa BayTimes