Pagan MC member indicted for attempted murder

Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA (September 20, 2019) BTN — A Upper Township man accused of running down a motorcyclist in his truck and then speeding away has been indicted for attempted murder. Noah Frost allegedly told police that the damage to his white Dodge Ram’s must have happened while it was parked in the Harrah’s Atlantic City parking garage.

But an investigation found that Frost was involved in the hit-and-run, which witnesses said was the result of what appeared to be a road rage incident.

Both men are members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner previously said. But it was not clear what caused an issue between the two. The victim, identified in the indictment as Benjamin DiPilla, was critically injured in the crash. His current condition was not released, but the defense was expecting medical records to be provided under a protective order.

Frost, 35, pleaded not guilty Thursday, and remains in the Atlantic County Justice Facility. He was indicted on six counts, including aggravated assault, assault by auto and leaving the scene of an accident that caused serious bodily injury.

Frost has been offered a 10-year plea deal, Assistant Prosecutor Christopher D’Esposito told the judge. Defense attorney Carlos Martir was given 11 discs of evidence, according to information given during the brief hearing arraignment before Superior Court Judge Bernard DeLury. Frost is due back in court Oct. 18.

DiPilla was arrested in 2016, as part of an investigation into drugs and guns related to the so-called outlaw motorcycle gang.


He pleaded guilty in 2017 to cocaine manufacturing/distribution and prohibited weapons and was sentenced to a year probation, court records show.

SOURCE: Breaking AC

Star witness in Vagos MC trial lied

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (September 20, 2019) BTN — A star witness for the government has repeatedly lied on the witness stand during a federal racketeering trial in Las Vegas for a group of reputed motorcycle club members.

And in an astonishing twist on Thursday, prosecutors asked a judge to throw out the testimony of Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick after he spent more than three days telling jurors that members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club had plotted to kill a rival biker in Sparks in 2011.

Related | Jury selection begins in Vagos MC case

“We have grave concerns and doubt as to whether this witness will be truthful,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Han said during the 23rd day of a trial that started in August and is expected to last through the end of the year.

Rudnick, who was ousted from the club after the fatal shooting, cooperated with authorities and testified against his former allies.

Defense attorneys for the eight men on trial immediately asked to have the most serious charges of murder and conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise thrown out, and U.S. District Chief Judge Gloria Navarro allowed Rudnick’s testimony to continue through cross-examination. Should Navarro dismiss the case, it would mark the second time in as many years that high-profile federal charges against multiple defendants were tossed out.

In early 2018, Navarro threw out felony conspiracy and weapons charges against Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and another man.

The most recent possibility of a major trial disruption emerged this week as Rudnick lied about never having met with Mark Fleming, a lawyer for one of the defendants, Albert Lopez, and a private investigator. When he was recalled to the stand Thursday, Rudnick admitted that he had met with the lawyer and investigator, a former FBI agent, for two hours on an afternoon in November 2017.

Defense attorneys accused government prosecutors of persuading Rudnick to lie about the meeting.

“This witness is incapable of telling the truth,” defense attorney Kathleen Bliss, a former federal prosecutor, told the judge. “This trial has become so unfair and so contaminated as to Rudnick and the government’s complicity. They’ve had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to fix it. You can’t unring the bell of Gary Rudnick.”

In this Dec. 9, 2011 file photo, murder defendant Gary Rudnick enters the courtroom

Lawyers for the other defendants, including Ernesto “Romeo” Manuel Gonzalez, who fired the shot that killed a leader of the Hells Angels, and Pastor Fausto Palafox, the Vagos international president known as “TaTa,” supported Bliss.

The judge asked for arguments from both sides in writing. “I don’t believe the government can prove the case without Rudnick,” said defense attorney Jess Marchese, who represents James “Jimbo” Patrick Gillespie.

Gonzalez’s attorney, Michael Kennedy, called Rudnick a “serial liar,” while Palafox’s lawyer, Amy Jacks, said Rudnick was “completely unreliable.” Han suggested that prosecutors could still prove the charges through other witnesses but added that “obviously there are certain things lost without the testimony of Rudnick.”

More defendants await trial

Prosecutors have said that leaders of Vagos orchestrated the September 2011 killing of a rival Hells Angels leader on the floor of John Ascuaga’s Nugget. Each defendant on trial is from California, ranging in age from 36 to 70.

Thirteen more defendants are awaiting trial in a case that prosecutors allege involves Vagos and crimes in Nevada, California, Arizona, Hawaii, Oregon and Utah.

Prosecutors have written in court papers that Vagos operated as a criminal enterprise and engaged in drug distribution, firearms trafficking, murder, kidnapping, assault, extortion, robbery and witness intimidation.

Video surveillance showed Jeffrey “Jethro” Pettigrew pistol-whipping another man on the casino floor before gunfire broke out.

During the fight, Gonzalez shot and killed Pettigrew, 54, who was known as the “godfather” of the Hells Angels in San Jose, California. Gonzalez was found guilty of murder in state court, but his conviction was overturned, and he was indicted in the federal case while awaiting a retrial.

On Thursday, defense attorneys stopped short of asking for a mistrial before Navarro decided whether to dismiss charges against the defendants.

When Rudnick, who spent time in state prison for his role in the slaying, was called back to the stand, he was cross-examined by Lopez’s lawyer, who asked whether Rudnick ever said the defendant was not part of a conspiracy.

“I know I said something like that to you,” Rudnick testified.

SOURCE: Las Vegas Review Journal 

Hells Angels to build Harley for TV star

Sussex Way, London, England (September 20, 2019) BTN — A Hells Angels ceremony in Greece will be one of several events held in memory of a man who was beaten to death in Islington. Family and friends gathered for Alciveadis Mavredis’s funeral in a Greek Orthodox church in Sussex Way on Wednesday.

The 59-year-old, who was of Greek heritage but lived in Beach­croft Way, Upper Holloway, was celebrating his birthday at the Royal Oak pub near the Elthorne estate when he was knocked unconscious at around 1:00 am on July 13.

He spent 18 days in a coma in an east London hospital before he died.

His sisters Cleopatra and Angela Mavredis flew to the UK to attend the service. Angela said: “His death was senseless and it’s very hard for us. So I don’t think a funeral service can bring you closure, we want justice to be served.” Leon Tayler, 26, of Cornwallis Square, was charged with murder earlier this month in connection with the incident.

As the Tribune previously reported, Mr Mavredis was a skilled mechanic who starred in the MTV hit show Pimp My Ride UK from 2005-07.

Cleo and Angela Mavredis

He owned several Harley Davidson motorbikes. Floral tributes were made by his friends for the funeral – one in the shape of a motorbike and another as the Harley Davidson logo.

He was preparing to move to Greece before he died and he had made contact with the Greek branch of the Hells Angels motorcycle group, according to his sister.

Angela said: “This is all surreal, one moment to another everything is flipped upside down.

“He has a Harley in Greece that he had design plans for, so as a family we decided to fulfil it and complete the build of his bike. The Hells Angels group will design and finish it – he was going to be initiated into the group”

She added: “They are all big guys but they were like mush when they talked about Al.

The Harley Davidson floral tribute

“We have had conference calls and meetings to discuss the design. “They’re going to have a ceremony for him when it is done. There’s nothing traditional about our brother and it’s fitting for him to have a Harley ceremony.”

The Hells Angels is a motorcycle club with chapters in countries around the world that originated in America. The sisters will take Mr Mavredis’s remains back to Greece, where his elderly mother Vassiliky is waiting for a private funeral.

Part of Mr Mavredis’s desire to move to Greece was so that he could be closer to his 87-year-old mother and care for her. Cleopatra said: “Mum is a little broken right now, you can see it physically and emotionally.

“She was waiting for her son to come back and very much looking forward to this.

“We’re doing OK, it feels like I have been hit by a truck and every muscle in my body hurts, but today we put on a happy face. We were treated well by Al’s friends.”

SOURCE: Camden New Journal

Hells Angels clubhouse raided for selling booze

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (September 19, 2019) BTN — Winnipeg police raided two Manitoba Hells Angels clubhouses and charged three people with selling liquor without a licence under the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act.

The search warrants were executed in December 2018 after police said they received information from three people that the Hells Angels were selling liquor without a licence inside two clubhouses in rural Manitoba houses. One is in the rural municipality of Rosser, the other on Redonda Street in the rural municipality of Springfield.

Winnipeg police executed search warrants at two Hells Angels clubhouses in Manitoba in December 2018, including this property on Road 65 N. in the rural municipality of Rosser.

Police affidavits say the informants told investigators there is a set price for booze at the clubhouse bars and the Angels believed that law enforcement couldn't investigate them if they put up signs that said "Donations."

The details were sealed by a provincial court judge in December but the documents were recently unsealed, although some information was redacted to protect the identities of confidential informants.

"Each clubhouse advertises that any alcoholic drink or non-alcoholic drink is not for sale but individuals can 'donate' the $3 or $5 to the Hells Angels," the police affidavit says.

Police were told the Hells Angels have a book behind the bar with a running tab for people who owe money for drinks, and the motorcycle club put the money in a bank account along with proceeds of their clothing sales — an account with more than $60,000 in it, the affidavit says.

To verify some of the source information they received, police said they relied on a number of things, including statements they got from officers in the organized crime unit who had observed the bar while arresting a suspect in the Redonda Street home in 2017.

Police said they also saw photos of a fully stocked clubhouse bar and fridge on the Facebook page of a prospective member of the Hells Angels and in the background of photos of a woman wearing support gear on the Manitoba Nomads website, which sells Hells Angels support clothing to the public.

Winnipeg police search warrant documents say the Hells Angels were selling liquor inside two Manitoba clubhouses without a licence to do so, and the setup included a donation jar to keep law enforcement away. (Provincial Court of Manitoba)

"If they want money for a drink, they're gonna get money for a drink, whether it's put in a jar or handed to someone in a parking lot," said Peter Edwards, Toronto Star crime reporter and organized crime author.

"I think there's all sorts of criminal activity in Hells Angels, but I think that the liquor licence type stuff is, I don't know.… I just don't see it as something that's going to make the streets safe."

Last December following the raids, Winnipeg police charged three men for selling liquor without a licence: Dale Donovan, who now goes by the name Kelland and is the president of the Manitoba Nomads, which is a chapter of the Hells Angels; Lorne Corlett, a full patch member of the gang; and prospect Cameron Barron.

The crime is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000, up to a year in jail, and forfeiture of any items seized by law enforcement.

In the 43-page search warrant documents, police said they received photographs from other Canadian police agencies that had conducted similar raids that showed "donation bins" posted in other Hells Angels clubhouse bars.

"All chapters of the Hells Angels across Canada follow the same rules and structure. The Hells Angels have world rules, Canada rules and then chapter rules," the police affidavit said.

In search warrant documents, Winnipeg police say in September 2018 a Hells Angels prospect posted these photos on his Facebook page. Officers said the photos were taken in a Hells Angels clubhouse and show a fully stocked bar, which supports allegations they were selling liquor without a licence. (Provincial Court of Manitoba)

Police said raids were done in Kelowna, B.C., Sudbury, Ont., St. Catharines, Ont., Ottawa and Toronto. CBC News also found video on YouTube showing police in Australia have done the same.

"It's an incredibly sophisticated organization with significant financial backing, so it makes it very difficult for police to take action against them," said Kelly Sundberg, an associate professor in the department of economics, justice and policy studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

"The police are limited by geography and by budgets. The Hells Angels are not."

Sundberg said regulatory approaches are one of the only tools police have to combat criminal organizations like the Hells Angels.

Winnipeg police search warrant documents say police in Ottawa raided a Hells Angels clubhouse in December 2017 and photos showed it had a similar setup to other Hells Angels clubhouses in other parts of the country. (Provincial Court of Manitoba)

"With the hopes that by taking that regulatory action against the organization that they'll discover a criminal act that will open the door for a criminal investigation that allows them to proceed on larger charges," Sundberg said.

Edwards, who has written 10 books on organized crime, understands why police would crack down on the Hells Angels in any way that they can, but he believes investigations like this will do nothing more than garner sympathy for them.

"They're not gonna keep piles of cocaine laying on the table in their clubhouse," Edwards said.

"What they're trying to do is crack down on criminal activity, drug trafficking, and this sort of thing is kind of, it's sort of a nuisance thing but its not going to put anyone out of business."

The Hells Angels have a long record of violence in Canada, including the murder of two justice officials in Quebec in 1997. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Quebec branch of the Hells Angels was warring with a rival outlaw motorcycle gang, the Rock Machine. That resulted in an estimated 150 murders over the course of a decade, and extensive drug trafficking and related crimes in Manitoba, the RCMP and Manitoba Justice say.

In 2014, Manitoba became the first government in North America to formally list the Hells Angels as a criminal organization. Similar designations have been made in Ontario and British Columbia.

But Sundberg said over the years, the Hells Angels have worked hard to change their public image by holding fundraisers for charity and organizing community events.

"I would not be surprised if the Hells Angels secure some of the best marketing and communications people money can buy. They've done an excellent job … in steering that lens of criminality away from them and even put it into the minds of the public that they are in fact a legitimate organization."

He said the narrative the Hells Angels present today is that the negative press has been manufactured by law enforcement and that they've been unfairly targeted.

"The Hells Angels are incredibly sophisticated. They have some of the best lawyers and accountants. The resources available to them, they're global in scope," Sundberg said.

SOURCE: CBC