Posted on 01/06/2016 1:13:58 PM PST by don-o
Three top leaders of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, considered an outlaw gang by U.S. authorities, have been arrested on charges of racketeering, assault and drug distribution that could bring up to life in prison, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The arrests are expected to send shock waves through the Bandidos, who have about 1,500 to 2,000 members in the United States, prosecutors said. The Bandidos, one of the biggest U.S. motorcycle gangs, with branches overseas, are suspected of being involved in a shootout last May in Waco, Texas, between rival gangs that killed nine people.
The three named in a grand jury indictment unsealed on Wednesday were national president Jeffrey Pike, 60, national vice president John Portillo, 56, and national sergeant at arms Justin Forster, 31, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said in a statement.
Bandidos officials were not immediately available for comment.
While none of the charges are directly connected to the Waco shootout, prosecutors said, many of the suspected crimes stemmed from a turf war starting in Texas in 2013 between the Bandidos and the Cossacks, another prominent motorcycle gang allegedly involved in the deadly central Texas city fight.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
How are the Bandidos different from your garden-variety CIA agents?
How can this be?!? FReepers said these are good law-abiding Christian patriots???
“How can this be?!? FReepers said these are good law-abiding Christian patriots???”
Got anything to back up your claim?
Could very well be the reason that Law Enforcement has been sandbagging the defense attorneys.
Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges! Where are Sons of Anarchy when we need them?
“Where are Sons of Anarchy when we need them?”
In fiction land? Being character actors, meeting with talent scouts and agents, etc. Somewhere being laughing, amazed at the meeting people who imagine its totally true?
Cringing at the idea they may be held up at an ATM?
Just a guess.
There is a “Three Banditos” motorcycle gang?
Do a search and you’ll find plenty of biker-lovers on FR. And I’m not talking about fat retired guys on Honda Goldwings.
Still, it was a great show: biker soap opera. Jumped the shark when Gemma brutally killed Tara: could barely watch afterward. Jax rules!
Considered an outlaw gang by gub mint authorities?
Hell this mooselimb fags gubmint think Christians are an outlaw gang.
Another link:
http://www.click2houston.com/news/3-leaders-of-bandidos-gang-arrested-on-federal-charges
The three men are accused of directing, sanctioning, approving and permitting other members of the organization to carry out racketeering acts including murder, attempted murder, assault, intimidation, extortion and drug trafficking in order to gain power and territory, the United States Attorney’s Office says.
According to an indictment, beginning in 2013, the Bandidos declared it was “at war” with the Cossacks organization. The indictment specifically alleges a number of violent acts committed by Bandidos members, furthering the war. The indictment also alleges that in 2014, Portillo received methamphetamine from Colorado-area Bandidos members and that Forster was selling ounce quantities of methamphetamine.
“This joint investigation by the DEA, the FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has led to the charging and arrest of the highest ranking leadership of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Organization. Of course, the defendants will have their day in court, but today’s arrest have struck a significant blow to the Bandidos’ criminal enterprise” United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr. said.
Pike, 60, Portillo, 56, and Forster, 31, remain in federal custody. If convicted, they face up to life in federal prison.
FReepers never said that Bandidos were good law-abiding Christians. We did say that some of the Motorcycle Clubs that were indiscriminately rounded up by Waco and Federal authorities are members of Christian, altruistic, and Veteran Clubs.
“We did say that some of the Motorcycle Clubs that were indiscriminately rounded up by Waco and Federal authorities are members of Christian, altruistic, and Veteran Clubs.”
Except they weren’t. All the ones arrested were members of the Bandidos, Cossacks, or their support clubs.
One has a very big brother.
Cite your sources.
Here is Jack’s post ...
“Bikers stand up to them, to their Christian hate, their muslim agenda and whatever else they want to throw at us! BIKERS ARE PRESENTLY THE BACKBONE of PATRIOT AMERICA! WHAT BETTER WAY TO BRING THEM DOWN THAN WITH BAD PRESS SUCH AS THIS! “
And where in that statement does it say Bandidos? Is it in invisible electrons?
I don’t even know why I bother to feed trolls.
Actually, no. There were more than just a few among those arrested who were not any of the above.
Later indictments weeded most of those (many of whom I'm lead to understand you are misidentifying) out perhaps?
For those who were dues-paying members of the COCI, that still does not equate with automatically being "support clubs" for Bandidos, despite Princess Puddles orgasmic repetitions of that conflating one thing with yet something else.
Support clubs? There's been a whole lot of talk about that kind of thing far beyond reality of the situation. There are MC's who may be friendly with one another though too, that are not necessarily 'support clubs' of either Bandidos or Cossacks MC (the latter having no tradition of 'support clubs that is generally known of, or else you can show us, and show us from somewhere other than the imaginations and accusations of law enforcement officers).
That straight-across type of conflating has less to do with truth than Princess's cheeto-stained fingers and lips (and lips) has...
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