Three of the top Bandidos leaders have caught federal charges.
National leaders of the Bandidos biker gang were arrested Wednesday on charges of racketeering and waging a deadly “war” on the rival Cossacks gang, federal authorities said.
An indictment announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio accuses three Bandidos leaders of sanctioning a three-year fight that included violent clashes with rival gangs and distribution of methamphetamine.
The accusations focus on a rivalry that came under renewed attention in May, when a meeting of biker groups at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, ended in gunfire that left nine people dead.
Authorities believe that the fatal confrontation began when members of the Cossacks crashed a meeting of a confederation of biker clubs that included the Bandidos at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco. The dispute ended in gunfire between the bikers and police standing nearby.
The federal indictment accuses John Portillo, the Bandidos’ national vice president, of using dues and donations to pay legal expenses of its members days after the Waco shooting. Portillo, along with national president Jeffrey Pike and national sergeant-at-arms Justin Cole Forster, are charged with racketeering, drug distribution and other crimes.
None of those three shows up on the list of bikers arrested at the Waco shootout.
“Using dues and donations to pay legal expenses of its members days after the Waco shooting…” Is that illegal? I’m actually asking here. I’m not aware of that violating any specific law, but I could be wrong.
Federal charges are heavy, as Uncle Sam has essentially unlimited resources with which to investigate and make the case. As the Bandidos have been involved in drugs in the past, that may be the easiest charge to make stick. But it’s still mighty curious that no one has been charged with murder for a shootout that left nine dead….
Tags: Bandidos Motorcycle Gang, Cossacks Motorcycle Gang, Crime, Jeffrey Pike, John Portillo, Justin Cole Forster, Texas, Waco
I have read nearly one hundred of these RICO indictments over the years. Everyone of them is a litany of petty offenses and total nonsense. What the US Attorney tries to do is convince the jury that these small time acts are part of a larger criminal enterprise. These trials last for months and some for years. The juries are beaten down with day after day of testimony like: “And then he hit me.”
In two years this case will fall apart. But until then these men will languish in jails and detention centers. Hell it will be a minimum of a year before the government is ready to go to trial.
So to answer your question, no it is not against the law to raise the members dues to pay legal expenses. But the US Attorney will argue that they were paying the legal expenses for illegal acts committed in the furtherance of the criminal enterprise: so then it is an illegal act.
Now sit in a jury box for 18 months hearing that and see just how easy it is to lose your way.