TAUNTON— The 14 men and one woman arrested this week in the FBI raid on the Outlaws Motorcycle Club may have local roots, but they are part of a vast worldwide criminal network, authorities said.
Nationally, the Outlaws — the chief rivals of the Hell's Angels — have been implicated in acts of gang violence including murder, authorities said.
“The Outlaws are a highly organized group,” Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks said. “They are a violent organization with a long history of criminal incidents.”
The 15 members and associates of the Taunton and Brockton chapters of the Outlaws were arrested on federal cocaine and marijuana trafficking charges, as well as firearms offenses. The arrests were the culmination of a two-year investigation that included an undercover FBI agent infiltrating the gang.
“It's very difficult to keep something secret for two years,” Brockton Police Chief William Conlon said.
During the year the federal agent was undercover, he saw members of the Outlaws get “prepared for armed conflict with rival gangs,” the acting U.S. attorney said.
Loucks said that after Bridgeport, Conn., Hell's Angels leader Roger Mariani was killed last year in a drive-by shooting on Interstate 95 in West Haven, Conn., several members of the Taunton Outlaws — including former chapter president Joe “Joe Doggs” Noe of Taunton and Brian “Clothesline” Delavega of Holbrook — headed south to help their fellow Outlaws brace against an anticipated retaliation by the Hell's Angels.
According to an affidavit filed in federal court, the authorities suspect a group of Outlaws from Florida was behind the shooting, which left a second Hell's Angel wounded.
Connecticut State Police said four men in an SUV with Florida plates were reportedly at the scene, but a spokesman declined to comment on possible suspects, saying the incident is still under investigation.
This May, Christopher Legere of Raymond, N.H., was sentenced to 45 to 90 years in prison after a jury convicted him of killing a man who was wearing a Hell's Angels shirt.
Authorities say Legere was the head of security for the Southern New Hampshire chapter of the Outlaws.
Last June, authorities said, Legere fired three shots at John Denoncourt, who wore a Hell's Angels sweatshirt while trying to enter a Manchester, N.H., bar that served as an Outlaws hangout.
The Outlaws also have a member who is on the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted list. Randy Mark Yager, former head of the Outlaws' Chicago chapter, is wanted on a 1997 federal indictment charging him with murder, arson, possession and use of explosives, possession and trafficking in counterfeit U.S. currency, robbery, burglary, trafficking in stolen motor vehicles and narcotics violations.
On a more local scale, Loucks said members of the Taunton Outlaws are suspected in a number of armed home invasions in Greater Taunton and were also involved in a Norton carjacking last April.
Members of the gang then sold the truck and several other vehicles as part of a widespread insurance fraud scam, according to an FBI affidavit.
The Outlaws Motorcycle Club was established in 1935 at a bar outside Chicago, and expanded over the years into a worldwide organization. It now contains 90 chapters, including three in Massachusetts: Brockton, East Boston and Taunton.
All content was erased Tuesday from the Outlaws Motorcycle Club's Web site, www.outlawsmc.com, but the Internet Way Back Machine (www.archive.org) provides a link to a May 9 version of the Web site. An announcement on the site insists the group is not a gang.
“The government has labeled the Outlaws MC a criminal organization and all it's (sic) members as criminals simply because they are members,” the announcement reads. “This is one of the most untrue and unjust statements ever made concerning our club. Each and every day through out America and the World members of Law Enforcement, Religious, Fraternal organizations as well as many other groups are convicted of criminal activity. Their membership is not universally labeled as criminals.”
The Web site contains another disclaimer: “The Outlaws Motorcycle Club is a CLUB not a gang. Our goals are to promote 'Biking & Brotherhood,' not to promote or participate in criminal activities.”
Law enforcement officials said there is considerable interaction between leaders of various local chapters, which provides a greater threat to public safety.
“In the mobile society we live in today, these elements can travel back and forth,” said Conlon, the Brockton police chief. “They are a scourge on all our communities.”
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