Sunday, August 12, 2007


Aug. 12, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
The notorious Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacy gang once limited primarily to prisons, could be doing business in a neighborhood near you.

Or at least it would probably like to, and that wouldn't be a good thing. The gang's criminal enterprises range from drug trafficking to identity theft. Its primary weapon: extreme violence.

The brotherhood sprouted in the California prison system in the 1960s. For decades, it was primarily a 'prison gang,' concerned with running rackets inside the walls and protecting 'white' inmates from rival Hispanic and black gangs.

But federal indictments unsealed recently in New Mexico paint a picture of a more ambitious agenda that includes illegal activities for profit.

'They use violence to propagate their drug activities. The two are intertwined,' said District Attorney Lemuel Martinez, whose district includes Sandoval, Cibola and Valencia counties.

Where the gang operates, federal agents say, violence is sure to follow.

The recent indictments bear that out. They involve the shooting death of a Roosevelt County rancher, the death a prospective gang member in Rio Rancho and an alleged plot to kill a former Otero County deputy who had shot and killed a gang member.

Federal law enforcement agents also point to a shootout with police during a drug raid in eastern New Mexico and the shooting death of a suspected informant in Dallas.

Law enforcement officials say the crimes attributed to the gang in the three federal indictments are unrelated, except for the underlying involvement of the gang.

Local law enforcement officials are reluctant to talk about the extent of the gang's activities, but they have found the gang involved in crimes typically connected to methamphetamine trafficking. They include identity theft, auto theft, burglary and dealing in stolen weapons.

'Traditionally, we rarely came across them (Aryan Brotherhood members),' said one senior narcotics agent. 'But we are starting to run into them more and more.'

Operating inside and out of prison in a number of states, the gang uses illegal profits to support gang leaders -- some behind bars, others on the outside.

Federal law enforcement officers told the Journal that the gang has been a major target for law enforcement around the country for the last five years.

Martinez said prosecutors have come across the gang in Cibola and Sandoval counties over the last six years.

'They are very dangerous and very violent,' he said. 'I'm glad to see the U.S. Attorney's Office cracking down.'

Prospect killed

Thirty-year-old Henry George hooked up with the gang and became a prospective member, despite his Hispanic heritage, while in Bernalillo County's Metropolitan Detention Center in 2002.

He was reported missing in June of that year and presumed dead.

Rio Rancho police had a pretty good idea what happened but have been tightlipped, even after they found George's skull and jawbone in 2006 in a remote area near the Rio Puerco.

The indictment charges that Bradley Wasson, a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood in New Mexico in 2002, ordered George's murder.

'Henry George was murdered by the Aryan Brotherhood because he contacted law enforcement,' it alleges.

Wasson, and two prospective gang members, Benjamin Raymond and Travis Loren Dally, assaulted George in his Rio Rancho home and forced him to confess that he had contacted police, the indictment says.

It alleges that the three men then purchased a shovel at a local store and took George to a remote area of Rio Rancho, where he was killed. They buried his body in the desert, using the new shovel.

Wasson, Raymond and Dally are charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, conspiracy to kidnap and kidnapping.

Wasson is also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Three defense attorneys have been appointed to represent Wasson, because he could face the death penalty.

Dally also faces an open count of murder in Sandoval County in George's death. District Attorney Martinez said his office has been coordinating with federal prosecutors.

Wasson's criminal record dates to 1997, when he was convicted of forgery, two counts of false imprisonment, possession of methamphetamine and larceny of a firearm.

The day after George was killed, Wasson was arrested while driving in Sandoval County for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

A passenger in the vehicle, John Mudersbach, told Sandoval County deputies that the gun was his.

Subsequently, Dally and another man were charged with attempting to murder Mudersbach, identified as a prospective gang member.

Rancher's killing

The reasons behind the July 2005 killing of Roosevelt County rancher Jimmy S. 'Bo' Chunn are not clear, and District Attorney Matthew Chandler of Clovis said recently that he couldn't discuss a motive in the case.

Chunn seems an unlikely candidate for crossing paths with the Aryan Brotherhood. He was a longtime rancher in the Portales area and a member of local civic organizations.

While it doesn't explain why, it appears from the indictment that Chunn wasn't the victim of random violence. Someone wanted him dead.

According to the indictment:

The plot to kill Chunn began a month before his death, when high-ranking brotherhood members Donald S. 'Wally' Taylor and Michael T. 'Bear' Brown met in San Jon to discuss drugs.

Brown wanted Taylor to acquire anhydrous ammonia to manufacture methamphetamine.

The next day, Taylor met with William J. Watson, not otherwise identified, and agreed to kill Chunn in exchange for a large quantity of anhydrous ammonia.

About a month later, on July 4, 2005, Taylor shot Chunn once in the head with a rifle.

In December, Watson fulfilled his end of the bargain by traveling to Texas, where he purchased 850 gallons of anhydrous ammonia and brought it back to New Mexico.

Taylor is charged with Chunn's murder, conspiracy to commit murder and several firearms violations.

Taylor, Watson and Brown are charged with being part of a racketeering enterprise, conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine. Watson is also charged with interstate travel in aid of a racketeering enterprise.

Chandler, who will be allowed to assist in the prosecution of the case by the U.S. Attorney's Office, said local law enforcement officers in the Portales area never gave up working on Chunn's murder.

'Once the federal investigators became involved, we worked hand-in-hand,' Chandler said.

He said local law enforcement in eastern New Mexico had run across the gang in drug cases, including a shootout during a drug raid.

Alleged murder plot

Of the three unsealed indictments, the one focusing on the plot to kill former Otero County Sheriff's Deputy Bill Anders demonstrates the connection between Aryan Brotherhood leaders inside prison and those on the street.

According to the indictment:

Anders shot and killed Aryan Brotherhood leader Earl Lee Flippen at Flippen's home outside Cloudcroft in 2004.

Anders, the second officer to arrive at the home in response to a domestic violence call, wounded Flippen during a shootout. He then handcuffed Flippen and went to the rear of the house, where he found fellow Deputy Robert Hedman shot dead. Anders returned and shot Flippen, killing the gang leader.

In April 2005, Anders was facing criminal charges for killing Flippen when Richard Aue, a leader of the Texas Aryan Brotherhood, mailed a letter from his prison cell in Beaumont, Texas, to Miranda Malone, directing the Aryan Brotherhood to kill Anders.

Malone mailed copies of the letter to Owen Puckett Jr., who was in prison in New Mexico. Puckett also obtained news articles and photographs regarding Flippen's death.

He then met with an undercover officer in May and solicited him to kill Anders and a member of Anders' family.

The same day he met with the undercover officer, Puckett sent a letter to Aryan Brotherhood leaders in Texas prisons, seeking their assent in the plan to kill Anders.

More letters followed from the Texas leadership approving the plan.

In August, the undercover agent met with Robert Guyton Cook and Samuel Arrington, described as leaders of the Texas gang who had been released from Texas prisons several years earlier.

Federal Magistrate Stephen Wm. Smith last month ordered Cook held without bond.

He found that Cook met with three fellow members of the group to plan the murder of Anders.

'During the meeting, which was recorded on video and audio tape by an FBI informant, defendant (Cook) approved the plan and gave advice on the manner to carry it out. He even offered to do it himself and alluded to another murder he carried out,' Smith ruled.

Cook allegedly offered the undercover officer a safe house and transportation to assist in the murder plot. Arrington later offered the undercover officer a place to hide after Anders was killed.

Cook, described as a 'Major' in the gang in court records, has multiple prior felony convictions in Texas and was on parole at the time of the meeting.

About half the defendants in the Anders case have not been arraigned. Federal authorities have to make arrangements to move them out of Texas state prisons into federal custody.

Charged with conspiring to kill Anders in aid of a racketeering enterprise are Owen Puckett Jr., Richard W. Aue, James C. Thompson, Jason L. Hankins, Robert G. Cook, Samuel Z. Arrington, Courtland R. Edmonds, Mary S. Berry, Miranda H. Malone and Rebecca L. Puckett.

Anders pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to a mandatory year in prison because a firearm was used.

He served his time in the state's maximum security unit because of the potential threat to his life.

Prison operations

The same indictment also gives examples of how the brotherhood operates in prison. It alleges that:

In July 2005, Owen Puckett Jr. and Robert Lewis were involved in a dispute over Puckett's leadership of the Aryan Brotherhood inside the privately run New Mexico state prison at Santa Rosa.

Puckett wanted Lewis killed and met with two other inmates to arrange it. However, the three decided not to kill Lewis because it would expose Puckett to a longer prison sentence.

Instead of killing him, they decided to break Lewis' jaw.

Inmate Michael Tanner was recruited to help in the assault and promised that his rank in the gang would rise.

On Oct. 1, 2005, Lewis was assaulted and severely beaten in the prison yard by Puckett and Tanner.

Puckett, Tanner and a third inmate, Kevin Parmentier, are charged in the indictment with conspiracy to commit assault.

Crackdown

Aryan Brotherhood is drawing more attention from law enforcement. For example:

Last year, federal prosecutors in California indicted 40 members on racketeering and murder charges focused more on gambling, drugs and prostitution inside prisons.

At the same time, federal authorities in Texas targeted the gang's activities outside prison as part the Justice Department's Safe Streets Program.

In Kansas, gang members inside and outside of prison were convicted last year of taking $500,000 worth of heroin into a prison there over a period of years.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0010-18841387


Delivered by Newstex LLC
via theFinancials.com

Giuen Media
Advertising Agency
Sales and Promotion
 http://giuen.wordpress.com