VALLEJO — The FBI is investigating potential “prison enterprise actions” of the Vallejo chapter of the Hells Angels Bike Membership, together with an hours-long beating on the notorious outlaw biker gang’s clubhouse and the possession of weapons, silencers, and greater than 1,000 rounds of ammo seized in a sequence of December raids, court docket information present.
In a prison grievance filed within the Jap District of California, federal authorities revealed they’ve sought arrest warrants for 3 Hells Angels members and one “enforcer,” as a part of an ongoing investigation into the Vallejo constitution of the Hells Angels. The FBI seems to be weighing the opportunity of searching for an indictment underneath the RICO Act; Process Drive Officer Shane Raftery described the constitution as a “prison enterprise” that lords over different bike golf equipment and is concerned in a territory dispute with rival golf equipment in Yolo County.
“To perpetuate the enterprise and to take care of and prolong its energy, Vallejo Hells Angels Bike Membership members and associates interact in a sample of racketeering predicates, together with committing and conspiring to commit homicide, tried homicide, intimidation, and assault leading to nice bodily harm in opposition to people who pose a risk to the enterprise or who jeopardize its operations,” Raftery wrote within the prison grievance.
Federal prosecutors have filed gun possession expenses in opposition to one alleged Hells Angels member, Jaime Alvarez. The prison grievance seeks arrest warrants in opposition to two others — Kenneth Caspers Jr. and Dennis Killough Jr. — in addition to Michael Mahoney, who's described as an “enforcer” for the group, however not a member. The grievance comprises an undated image of Mahoney sporting a Hells Angels vest that claims “hangaround,” a standing the membership assigns to those that search to develop into prospects and finally full-fledged members.
Information of the investigation got here as three Hells Angels members are standing trial in a racketeering and homicide case centering on the Hells Angels of Sonoma County. That case stems from a sequence of arrests in 2017, includes greater than a dozen defendants and allegations that members of charters in Fresno, Sonoma, Boston, and elsewhere conspired to homicide a Hells Angels sergeant-at-arms and get rid of his physique by an unlawful cremation.
On Monday, a former Hells Angels prospect named Steve Kerhagen testified he infiltrated the group as an FBI informant, changing into one among three former prospects or members across the Bay Space to cooperate with authorities.
The grievance describes an October 2021 hours-long assault on the Vallejo clubhouse, the place roughly a dozen Hells Angels allegedly pulverized two members of the Union Iron Staff Bike Membership, beating one for one hour and 50 minutes — that sufferer stated he used a clock on the wall to time the beating — and a second right into a “semi-conscious state.”
In that incident, the primary sufferer was set to satisfy a Hells Angels member on the clubhouse with others in his bike membership however determined to go early, by himself. When he did, he was attacked so extensively he suffered a number of damaged ribs, and was informed the beating would cease if he gave up the title of a second Union Iron Staff clubhouse member he’d been filmed speaking to about bike golf equipment that rival the Hells Angels, in line with the grievance.
The person — named in court docket information solely as “Sufferer 1” — promptly gave up the title of “Sufferer 2,” who was then lured to the membership and assaulted similarly. Sufferer 1 was threatened by the unnamed president of the clubhouse that he’d be killed if he returned to Vallejo, however he finally cooperated with police, the grievance says. Sufferer 2 claimed to have at finest a patchy reminiscence of the incident.
Caspers, Killough, Mahoney, and Alvarez are all named as alleged members within the assaults, and Mahoney was linked to a 2021 incident by which he allegedly knocked out a person throughout a combat at Judy’s Wild Wrangler Saloon in Vacaville, in line with the grievance. It's unclear what month in 2021 the bar combat occurred.
The grievance additionally references a 2013 case the place Killough allegedly bought “stolen navy tools” and firearms with the assistance of his then-wife, a dispatcher with the California Freeway Patrol.
Final Dec. 8, the FBI performed a sequence of raids in Fairfield, Vacaville, and Vallejo, on the 4 males’s houses, and recovered greater than a dozen firearms, together with pistols and rifles with obliterated serial numbers, generally referred to as “ghost weapons.” Additionally they discovered a sawed-off shotgun, a bullet proof vest, a billy membership with a Hells Angels deathhead, greater than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and assault weapons that included an AK-47-style rifle, the grievance says.
All 4 males had been arrested then launched as a part of the December raids. Shortly thereafter, a still-active GoFundMe web page searching for to boost a protection fund for Killough, Mahoney, and Alvarez garnered roughly $7,300 of the $30,000 it sought.
Alvarez was ordered detained at his first court docket look final week, information present. His lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Mahoney, Killough, and Caspers are all out of custody.