Aryan Brotherhood

[angelburst29]

Federal prosecutors Thursday (6.6.2019) announced a massive operation targeting one of California's most notorious white nationalist prison gangs, unsealing numerous racketeering charges against 16 alleged members and associates of the so-called "Aryan Brotherhood."

Feds announce massive bust of Aryan Brotherhood crime ring in California's prisons
Massive crime ring bust of notorious Calif. white nationalist prison gangs, feds say
Feds announce massive bust of Aryan Brotherhood crime ring in California's prisons

AP
This May 8, 2015, photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Ronald Yandell.

In a 143-page criminal complaint, an undercover DEA agent maps out an extensive organized crime network alleged to have orchestrated assassinations, weapons smuggling operations and drug trafficking across multiple states.

At the center of the investigation are two of the three alleged members of the Aryan Brotherhood's leadership commission, Ronald Yandell, 56, and Daniel Troxell, 66. When the investigation started, both were already serving life sentences in prison for murder.

The court document, however, chronicles in detail through intercepted calls, texts and the undercover agent’s own recollections after infiltrating the outer circle of the gang -- how Yandell was allegedly able to coordinate drug deals and oversee murder plots while still behind bars.

The complaint specifically details five murders allegedly carried out by gang members from 2011 to 2018 targeting inmates staying at Folsom State Prison, High Desert State Prison and Salinas Valley Prison in California, in addition to multiple other murder plots. Nine of the 16 defendants named in the criminal complaint are already serving out sentences in prison for separate crimes.

The DOJ announcement notes that the charges are only allegations and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. ABC News has attempted to contact the listed attorneys for two of the defendants, Jeanna Quesenberry, 52, of Sacramento and Kristen Demar, 44, of Citrus Heights -- but did not immediately receive a response. Two others, Justin Petty, 37, of Los Angeles, and Samuel Keeton, 40, of Menifee, were not reachable by their available phone numbers.

The agent puts partial blame for the gang's success in an October 2015 court settlement that required the California prison system to release "extraordinarily dangerous" prisoners stationed in strictly isolated cells into less restrictive confinement conditions, including numerous Aryan Brotherhood members like Yandell.

“[As a result of the settlement], Aryan Brotherhood members have recruited new members, indoctrinated new associates, and rapidly asserted their dominance over the white inmate population throughout California,” the complaint reads. “As a result of their resurgence, Aryan Brotherhood members and associates have also committed a number of murders, assaults, and acts of intimidation that preserve, protect and further expand the power of the enterprise.”

Through several confidential informants and the undercover agent’s own recollections, the complaint gives detailed insight into the Aryan Brotherhood's expansion since its formation in 1964 into its status as California's most dominant white nationalist prison gang.

The Aryan Brotherhood operates on a "blood-in, blood-out" policy, according to the complaint, meaning in order to achieve full membership potential, members must murder a fellow inmate and "can only leave when they die."

Though its members traffic in white supremacist ideology and often boast neo-Nazi tattoos, legal experts have observed that the Aryan Brotherhood's white nationalist motivations morphed mostly out of a desire to consolidate power and recruitment inside the prison system and less on racial animus. For instance, the gang is alleged in the complaint to have engaged with members of the Mexican Mafia, a Latino prison gang.

The DEA agent’s own infiltration into the gang is described in several alleged drug deals with an outside associate, Quesenberry, who phone records showed was in frequent contact with one of Yandell’s contraband cell phones both before and after selling the agent several ounces of heroin on multiple occasions.

Yandell and other Aryan Brotherhood leadership would allegedly rely on increasingly creative methods to obtain cell phones that allowed them to coordinate with associates in the outside world.

Among the associates charged in the case was attorney Kevin MacNamara, 39, who is accused of smuggling a cell phone for one of the defendants in prison by hiding it inside his wheelchair.

MacNamara is also alleged in the complaint to have smuggled other “various kinds of contraband” like tobacco and controlled substances into Folsom prison in previous visits, using attorney-client privilege to shield him from the surveillance that would be placed on other visitors.

While it’s unclear what effect the arrests and new charges will have on the Aryan Brotherhood’s network, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott told reporters Thursday they expected the operation would amount to “a very significant setback for one of California’s most notorious prison gangs.”

 

[munaychasumaq]

I`m wondering that if this Aryan brotherhood gang is not one of the best doors for Organic Portals to come in

 

[angelburst29]

I`m wondering that if this Aryan brotherhood gang is not one of the best doors for Organic Portals to come in

Taking in consideration, incarceration for these alleged members, was due to murder and other acts of violent crimes, I suspect they were OP candidates - long before they got locked up in a prison cell. And even confined within prison walls, they still managed to commit murder and other violent offences.

Question is - "How many more of these OP candidates are still roaming freely in our society, while their crimes go unpunished?"

At the center of the investigation are two of the three alleged members of the Aryan Brotherhood's leadership commission, Ronald Yandell, 56, and Daniel Troxell, 66. When the investigation started, both were already serving life sentences in prison for murder.

 

[gdpetti]

Wouldn't every group/gang have their own 'best door'?

 

[angelburst29]

SACRAMENTO, California: Leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang were charged Thursday with directing killings and drug smuggling from within California’s most secure prisons, US prosecutors said.

Leaders of white supremacist prison gang charged in killings
Leaders of white supremacist prison gang charged in killings

The charges detail five slayings and accuse an attorney of helping smuggle drugs and cellphones to aid the white supremacist gang.

Sixteen Aryan Brotherhood members and associates are accused of running the criminal enterprise using contraband cellphones, encrypted chats, text messages, multimedia messages and email.

Among them are nine current inmates charged with racketeering, conspiracy and other charges, and seven people outside prison accused of assisting the gang in activities in Las Vegas and as far east as Missouri and South Dakota.

“What started as a seemingly simple drug buy on the streets of Sacramento led us into the dark, nasty and brutally violent underbelly of the California prison system,” said Christopher Nielson, local special agent in charge with the US Drug Enforcement Administration. “Notoriously dangerous inmates aren’t necessarily thwarted by prison walls.”

Sacramento-based US attorney McGregor Scott called the charges “a very significant setback for one of California’s most notorious prison gangs.”

Prosecutors said one victim was a longtime leader of a rival black gang, killed just days after he was released from decades of solitary confinement. The other four were Aryan Brotherhood associates, killed for not following the rules.

Despite its racist philosophy, the Aryan Brotherhood had a drug smuggling partnership with the Mexican Mafia, prosecutors said.

Among the inmates charged is Daniel “Danny” Troxell, 66, a convicted killer serving a life sentence who was known for writing a federal complaint in 2009 that eventually led California to curb the use of solitary confinement.

He formed an unusual cease-fire alliance with leaders of other blood-rival gangs to promote the complaint. It eventually led to hundreds of gang members and associates being released back into the general prison population, where investigators say some committed new crimes.

Prison officials said it’s difficult to keep up with the changing tactics of gangs behind bars. “The gangs evolve, their techniques evolve and they change,” California Corrections Secretary Ralph Diaz said. “We will adapt and move along with them

Black Guerilla Family leader Hugo “Yogi” Pinell, a killer with ties to the 1960s black revolutionary movement, was among those released after 45 years in isolation.

Two Aryan Brotherhood associates, acting on the orders of gang leaders, killed the 71-year-old Pinell days after he was moved in 2015 to a Sacramento-area prison, prosecutors say.

Pinell became infamous as a member of San Quentin 6, helping slit the throat of prison guards during a failed 1971 escape attempt that left six dead.

Troxell and Pinell long denied being gang members. Most of the defendants did not yet have legal representation for the counts unveiled Thursday.

The charges also allege that cellmates Ronald “Renegade” Yandell, 56, and William Sylvester, 51, used smuggled cellphones to direct heroin and methamphetamine trafficking operations in California

Yandell, serving a life sentence for a double murder, is described as one of the gang’s three-member leadership commission, as is Troxell.

La Palma attorney Kevin Macnamara is charged with trying to smuggle methamphetamine, tobacco and cellphones. Guards reported finding three phones, plastic wrappers and power cables concealed in the seat cushion of Macnamara’s wheelchair.

Macnamara, 39, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment and the voicemail box on his phone was full.

“We have a long way to go in this case,” said defense attorney Candice Fields, who represents Kristen Demar, 44, who is charged with posing as Macnamara’s paralegal to help smuggle contraband. “With all of the moving parts it is impossible to say right now how things will turn out,” Fields said.

Authorities have been trying to bring down the Aryan Brotherhood — also known as The Brand — for decades.

The gang was formed by white inmates in the mid-1960s and has a policy of “blood in, blood out,” holding that full members must kill to gain entry and can only leave when they die, though authorities said there are exceptions. Members who don’t kill when ordered to do so risk being slain themselves.

 

[whitecoast]

Wouldn't every group/gang have their own 'best door'?

To my knowledge prison populations tend to coalesce into racial or ethnic gangs. The blacks have a gang, the latinos have a gang, and so do the whites, but to my knowledge proportionally less of the white prison population is involved in an explicitly racial gang. I would be surprised if these other race gangs were not involved in similar clandestine operations. Still, good on the DOJ for the bust all the same. Whatever the race of the gang, I'm sure it's crawling with psychopaths and warrior genotypes.