Ex-cop blasts 'Strike Force Raptor' plan

Moree, New South Wales, Australia (November 27, 2019) BTN — A former Australian detective has ridiculed National's zero-tolerance approach to gangs, saying the strategy has been a "disaster" across the ditch. The opposition party yesterday proposed setting up an elite police squad - modelled on Strike Force Raptor in New South Wales - with the sole purpose of crushing gangs.

National leader Simon Bridges repeatedly described the unit as "devastatingly effective" and referenced media reports which claimed it was driving outlaw bikies into extinction.

But former NSW detective Mike Kennedy told RNZ that was "nonsense" and Mr Bridges was "living a dream" if he believed that. "He needs to pull his head out of whatever it's stuck in because ... [gangs] exist. They're always going to exist. They just go underground. "I'm not a bleeding heart liberal," he said. "But [the zero-tolerance strategy has] just been a disaster."

Dr Kennedy spent much of his time with the police as an undercover officer working in organised crime and is now a senior lecturer at Western Sydney University. He said there was no evidence to suggest that gang numbers had fallen dramatically since the formation of Strike Force Raptor a decade ago. "Outlaw motorcycle gangs are unregulated, so how would you know?" he said. "They're not required to pay a fee ... and register with government. So any suggestion that the numbers are down is just nonsense."

Dr Kennedy said the problem had just been driven underground. "People don't stop being members of groups just because they've been arrested. They go into jail, they reinforce themselves, they come out, [and] they get more of a reason to remain in the group they're in."

Police officers needed a working relationship with communities, including gang members, so they would cooperate with investigations, he said.

"You need this community to trust you so that when things need to be brought into line, the police are able to go in and speak to people and find out who's ... behaving really badly, and who needs to be put in jail," Dr Kennedy said. "If you want those families to help the police ... then you can't just tar them all with the same brush. And that's what Raptor does."

National's law and order discussion document describes Strike Force Raptor as a "proactive, high-impact specialist unit" designed to target outlaw motorcycle gangs and associated criminal enterprises.


The elite military-style unit was set up in 2009 following a deadly clash between the Hells Angels and Comancheros at Sydney Airport. The strike force is designed to punish gang members via all legal avenues, coming after them for any infraction, no matter how minor, from a parking fine to a punch-up.

A Nine News report earlier this year stated Strike Force Raptor had made more than 5000 arrests and laid more than 12,000 charges over the past decade. The unit had also seized 1700 illegal firearms and shut down more than 50 clubhouses, it said.

NSW Police declined to provide RNZ with evidence of Strike Force Raptor's success, saying it was not "appropriate" for it to comment on a matter "out of our jurisdiction". The media team also refused to reveal the size of the unit or its annual operating cost.

Speaking to Morning Report, Mr Bridges promised the party would release figures "in the next little while" which would prove the unit's effectiveness. "We are at this moment, in fact, talking to the government in New South Wales to compile the data."

SOURCE: RNZ

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Ex-firefighter fights to get job back

Waco, Texas, USA (November 27, 2019) BTN – A Waco firefighter who lost his job in part over his ties to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club is fighting to be reinstated, saying he was unjustly terminated four years ago.

Bill Dudley, a 13-year veteran with the Waco Fire Department, testified in an all-day hearing Tuesday in a third-party arbitration review of his termination in October 2015.

Dudley was arrested during a traffic stop in Tarrant County on May 12, 2015 and charged with unlawfully carrying an unconcealed weapon in his truck. Crowley police ran a safety check on Dudley and found that the Texas Department of Public Safety flagged him as a member of the Bandidos, which DPS classifies as a "criminal street gang."

The arrest occurred five days before a deadly shootout at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco between the Bandidos and rival Cossacks motorcycle club.

"It is my opinion that they used the Twin Peaks (incident) to fire me," Dudley said in the hearing. "I believe they used things outside the statute for punishment. I did not do anything in that traffic stop that showed poor moral character. I did everything the officers asked me."

Dudley, 37, said he was a former member of a support club for the Bandidos and wanted to start a new chapter of the Bandidos near his home in Burleson. He said he was considered a Bandidos recruit for several months, but he left active membership in the clubs after he was injured in a Fort Worth bar shootout involving Bandidos in 2014.

Waco fire Lt. Philip Burnett, president of the Waco Professional Firefighters Association Local 478, sat with Dudley in support during Tuesday's hearing. He said he is a friend of Dudley and said he would have no hesitation serving with Dudley on any call for service with the department.

"The Texas State Association of Firefighters and the Waco Professional Association of Firefighters want to make sure that firefighter Bill Dudley receives all he is entitled to under our Civil Service rights as firefighters pursuant to the Texas local government code," Burnett said.

Arbitrator Thomas Cipolla with American Arbitrator Association oversaw the hearing and heard testimony from city staff, Crowley police, and current Waco firefighters and friends. Attorneys Lu Phan and Antonio Allen represented the city while state-level union representative Rafael Torres represented Dudley during the hearing.

The daylong hearing ended with no action Tuesday evening. Cipolla said attorneys will have the option to submit briefs and allow Cipolla to review the case before he issues a decision to uphold the termination, reduce the disciplinary or dismiss Dudley's claim.

"Today the city presented the facts and findings from the original investigation to the arbitrator," Waco Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Vranich said. "We now will have to wait for the arbitrator to make his decision."

The city presented its claims that Dudley was fired for the Crowley arrest, as well as not obeying rules and regulations; being absent from work without good reason; failing to notify the department within 24 hours of his arrest; using poor judgment that reflects negatively toward the fire department and the city; and demonstrating poor moral character by associating with and/or being a member of a known criminal street gang.

Torres said Dudley was not a member of the motorcycle club, and the city did not have the legal right to terminate him. Torres said the city denied Dudley's due process rights and relied on circumstances outside the scope of a 180-day Civil Service review for disciplinary action.

Those testifying for the city included Vranich, who served as acting fire chief Tuesday, as well as former Waco Fire Chief John Johnston and Crowley police officers. Johnston indefinitely suspended Dudley in October 2015 following a three-month internal affairs review Vranich conducted.

Vranich testified he was unable to determine if Dudley was an active member of the Bandidos. Johnston stated he found cause to fire Dudley for violating city policy, department policy, and Civil Service rules and regulations. He said Dudley did not report his arrest to his supervisor within 24 hours, violating department policy.

He said Dudley used a sick day to get out of work for "personal reasons," but never told anyone about his arrest. "He would have flown under the radar," Johnston said.

Torres claimed the Twin Peaks shootout, which left nine dead and nearly two dozen injured, heightened the department's disciplinary response toward Dudley.

Dudley pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge in 2017 and received deferred adjudication for 24 months in Tarrant County. The plea deal required him to plead guilty to the charge.

The hearing ended late Tuesday afternoon no action. Cipolla said he will likely review the case and briefs submitted by attorneys before coming to his decision in the next few months.

SOURCE: Waco Tribune - Herald

13 charged in Hells Angels clubhouse raid

Denver, Colorado, USA (November 22, 2019) BTN — Thirteen people are accused of running an organized crime ring in Denver. District Attorney Beth McCann charged them following raids on the Denver Charter Hells Angels Club House, two tattoo shops and a business that advertises as specializing in customizing trucks, among others.

The suspects are aged 27 to 81 years old.

Federal agents raided multiple locations around the Denver area earlier this month. Agents say they seized dozens of firearms in addition to methamphetamine, cocaine, cash and passports.

Video captured by neighbor shows about 10 agents and several uniformed officers outside a building in the 3200 Block of Navajo Street, and patrol cars blocking a nearby intersection.

"The Hells Angels just got raided next to us."

Federal agents raided multiple locations around the Denver area early Thursday morning:https://t.co/GVgYeZxHXy pic.twitter.com/iT7CihvCUR

— CBSDenver (@CBSDenver) November 7, 2019

“The Hells Angels just got raided next to us,” a man can be heard saying in one of the video clips. “I haven’t seen a person come out.”

The district attorney’s office say the people accused face charges of assault, kidnapping, robbery, motor vehicle theft and chop shop activity.


Neighbors told CBS4 they heard flash bangs as the agents went into the home but things quieted down fairly quickly after that.

ATF Special Agent David Booth had confirmed that some of the individuals “have ties to motorcycle gangs.” He said at least two motorcycle clubs were involved.

Top row, from left: Jason P. Sellers, Michael J. Dire, Jared B. Orland, Clinton Williams. Middle row, from left: William “Kelly” Henderson, William “Curly” E. Whitney, Justin A. Wright, Peter M. Baron. Bottom row, from left: Dominic P. Robichaud, Adam Mulcahy, Jimmy Salazar, Derek A. Beste

The names of the accused are:

Jason P. Sellers, 44
Michael J. Dire, 74
Jared B. Orland, 47
Clinton Williams, 45
William “Kelly” Henderson, 42
William “Curly” E. Whitney, 81
Justin A. Wright, 35
Peter M. Baron, 30
Dominic Robichaud, 47
Dustin Ullerich, 47
Adam Mulcahy, 27
Jimmy D. Salazar, 44
Derek A. Beste, 30
Jerome J. Guardiola, 35, remains at large

Investigators said raids took place in Denver, the metro area, Colorado Springs, and Weld County. They said the raids were successful but there are still individual agents are working to locate.

Booth said the ATF was involved to coordinate the effort between state and local agencies but would say the specific nature of the crimes being investigated.

SOURCE: CBS4 Denver

Judge rules Vagos MC members will face charges

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (November 22, 2019) BTN — A little more than two months after a major disruption in a federal trial against eight reputed members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club, a federal judge has ruled that the most serious charges of murder and conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise will not be thrown out.

The motion to dismiss the charges surfaced after the government’s star witness — an ousted Vagos member who had been cooperating with authorities and agreed to testify against his former allies — admitted to repeatedly lying on the witness stand in September.

Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick had spent more than three days telling jurors that Vagos members had plotted to kill a rival biker in 2011 in Sparks.

“This was one of the worst witnesses ever put forth in a courtroom,” Jess Marchese, an attorney for one of the eight men on trial, said Thursday. He and attorneys for the remaining defendants had asked U.S. District Chief Judge Gloria Navarro to throw out the murder and racketeering charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence.

Related | Star witness in Vagos MC trial lied
Related | Jury selection begins in Vagos MC case

After more than four hours of arguments Thursday, Navarro agreed with the defense that the case was “a lot weaker than it was in the beginning” but said that she weighed the “totality of the circumstances” when making her decision.

The trial, which began in August and was expected to last through the end of the year, resumes Monday morning.

The charges stem from a racketeering indictment in 2017 against 23 Vagos members arrested in Nevada, Hawaii and California.

Vagos, the Spanish term for “lazy,” is a reference to a vagabond. According to the indictment, the biker gang was formed in San Bernardino, California, in the mid-1960s and has spread to at least seven countries. It is said to have 75 chapters in the United States, 54 of which are in Nevada and California, the states where authorities have said most of the criminal activity occurred.

The eight men on trial — Pastor Fausto Palafox, Albert Lopez, Albert Benjamin Perez, James Patrick Gillespie, Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, Bradley Michael Campos, Cesar Vaquera Morales and Diego Chavez Garcia — also face one count of using a firearm to commit murder during and in retaliation to a crime of violence in addition to the murder and conspiracy charges.

The bikers are accused of a laundry list of violent crimes, including the 2011 fatal shooting of a rival Hells Angel club member at the Sparks Nugget hotel-casino — a crime described, at the time, as part of a broader criminal conspiracy that involved a coordinated cover-up and threats of retaliation against club members who cooperated with law enforcement.

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

SOURCE: U.S. News and World Report