Friends of Ours

Motorcycle Club News

***  Ruben "Doc" Cavazos, former Mongols national president, was sentenced to fourteen years in prison pursuant to secret court hearing after pleading guilty to racketeering:

Calls to Cavazos' deputy federal public defender, John Littrell, were not returned. Littrell requested the judge to seal documents regarding his client, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Brunwin. The reason for sealing was due to underlying issues that Brunwin couldn't talk about.

***  Fifteen bikers from Hells Angels and its puppet club AK81 convicted of attempted murder and assault against rival immigrant gangs in Copenhagen, Denmark:

The 15 individuals were charged with having carried out four shootings, planning a further two as well carrying out assaults using weapons. Their victims were mostly young  men with immigrant backgrounds.

***  Police warn of escalating gang war with some Hells Angels on one side in Vancouver, BC Canada.

***  Prosecution drops several charges in upcoming Hells Angels mega trial in Montreal, QC Canada:  "the court was to hear the cases of over 100 bikers, each charged with 22 counts of murders, but . . . it was reduced to nine counts."

***  Bikers on the rise in Alberta, Canada:  "according to Sgt. Marc Labonte of the Edmonton Integrated Intelligence Unit for the RCMP, during the last two years, Alberta has seen one of the largest increases in outlaw motorcycle gangs across the country."

***  Hells Angels members allegedly involved with debt collection firms in New Zealand: 

Detective Inspector Grant Wormald, of the Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand, said some debt collectors traded on their gang membership. "More often than not the gangs are used to collect debts in the knowledge that people will pay up through fear and intimidation," he said.

***  Gypsy gangs hook up with motorcycle clubs to deal drugs in Australia.

***  The Chosen Few clubhouse is in the crosshairs of city officials in Los Angeles, CA.

***  College professor accused of leading the local chapter of the Devils Disciples in San Bernardino, CA pleads not guilty to heading a methamphetamine ring.

Cops: College Professor Breaks Bad

A tenured professor at the San Bernardino campus of California State University may not be returning to classes this fall.

Steve Kinzey has been accused of leading the local chapter of the Devils Disciples motorcycle club and separately heading a methamphetamine ring, and now the bald-headed funky-bearded academic whose expertise is kinesiology or the study of human movement is on the run from the law as reported by Phil Willon for the Los Angeles Times.

Authorities "said the probe stemmed from a federal undercover operation of another biker gang, the Mongols, in which Kinzey was identified as being involved in criminal activity" as reported by CBS News.

One former student said the good professor "never drank, never smoked, etc.," and Kinzey's father described him as "a good Catholic boy" as reported by Melissa Pinion-Whitt for Contra Costa Times.

Apparently the AMC series Breaking Bad in which high school chemistry teacher and family man Walter White turns to cooking meth is inspiring nerds everywhere.

Earlier this week a Dartmouth College grad student with a chemistry background was charged in Hanover, NH with running a meth lab out of his apartment as reported by Philip Caulfield for the Daily News.

Judges, Lawyers & Motorcycle Clubs

Macomb County District Judge Paul Cassidy announced that he is retiring from the bench following an FBI raid on his chambers and home pursuant to an investigation to determine whether he provided preferential treatment to members and associates of the Devil's Diciples according to an article by Amber Hunt for the Detroit Free Press:

Cassidy was a boyhood friend of the club's national president, Jeff Garvin (Fat Dog) Smith of Mt. Clemens, who faces federal drug trafficking charges. The judge in April said the relationship never translated into favorable treatment for Diciple members.

Meanwhile, Chad Halcom at Crain's Detroit Business reports that Hatim (Tim) Attalla, the politically-connected Detroit lawyer who was appointed by Mayor Dave Bing to his "crisis turnaround team," is on paid administrative leave from his law firm Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone following charges that he served as consigliere to the Highwaymen Motorcycle Club which was the target of a sweeping federal racketeering indictment last week.  The indictment alleges that Attalla assisted defendant Highwaymen member and former club vice president Aref Nagi -- a local restaurant owner who has been jailed since October 2006 on drug conspiracy charges -- by "advising arrested individuals to keep silent regarding Nagi's involvement in the drug conspiracy, by supplying Nagi with a variety of different pills, and by acting as general counsel for the enterprise."

News: Motorcycle Clubs

***  Last Thursday police arrested 27 alleged members and associates of the Rebels motorcycle club throughout Australia on drug and weapons charges, and they "seized drugs, including methyamphetamine, heroin and cocaine, banned weapons, cash, child pornography and stolen vehicles."

***  In Australia representatives from the bikie gangs -- including Hells Angels, Comancheros, the Rebels, Bandidos, God Squad, Black Uhlans, the Finks, and Lone Wolf -- have established the United Motorcycle Club Council of NSW "which plans to challenge NSW legislation that allows police to apply for them to be declared criminal organisations."

***  John Parker, president of the Brisbane chapter of the Rebels, "has allowed cameras inside the gang's fiercely-protected Albion clubhouse in a reluctant public relations push to show not all bikies are the dangerous hard men police and politicians claim."  The slideshow further includes historic photographs of Rebels members and events.

***  In Japan "thirty-five percent of bosozoku motorcycle gang members nationwide have ties with organized crime syndicates."

***  Last week federal prosecutors in Michigan dropped drug and weapons charges against nearly two dozen members of the Macomb County-based Devil's Diciples and the FBI further is investigating District Court Judge Paul Cassidy "to determine whether the club's members received special treatment in proceedings before him":

Agents also have interviewed Cassidy about the cases because, he said, he is a boyhood friend of Jeff Garvin "Fat Dog" Smith, 54, of Mount Clemens -- the club's national president. "We grew up together in Mount Clemens and played grade school basketball together," the judge said Friday. "They've interviewed me a couple of times. I've answered their every question." Special Agent Sandra Berchtold with the FBI's Detroit Field Office said agents executed search warrants at the court and at Cassidy's New Baltimore home. She said the affidavits are sealed and she couldn't comment further. The FBI's moves come days after federal prosecutors dismissed nearly all charges against Smith and 17 alleged members and associates of the Clinton Township-based motorcycle club, which the FBI says intentionally misspells disciples in its name. 

FBI Busts Devils Diciples In Michigan

On Wednesday morning the FBI rounded up nearly 20 alleged members of the Michigan-based Devils Diciples motorcycle club on drug trafficking and other charges, and seized "42 firearms, 3,000 rounds of ammunition, three bullet-proof vests, $12,000 in U.S. currency and 15 casino-style slot machines. Also taken were 1,000 Vicodin and OxyContin pills, 1 1/2 pounds of methamphetamine and 55 pounds of marijuana."  The arrests follow an investigation commenced in 2002 after law enforcement received "information on organized criminal activities being conducted by" the motorcycle club which allegedly involves "the distribution of narcotics, illegal gambling, the stealing and retagging of stolen motorcycles/cars, firearms sales/distribution, extortion, and assault."  Among those arrested the club's national president Jeff Garvin Smith, its national vice president Paul Anthony Darrah, and the national warlord Cary Dale Vandiver.

The 150-member Devils Diciples, formed in 1967, is headquartered in Clinton Township and Port Huron, MI, and it  has chapters in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Arizona, California and England.

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