Kerrie Droban - Running with the Devil: The True Story of the ATFs Infiltration of the Hells Angels

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Copyright 2007 Kerrie Droban

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to The Lyons Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

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Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-59228-976-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

To all those who sacrificed and continue to sacrifice in the name of law enforcement

We cant be infiltrated, no cops can get inside on us, they dont have the resources, the manpower, or the time to wait. Were unbeatable and untouchable.

Ralph Sonny Barger, Hells Angel

The experiences of the undercover operatives involved in this book, the anecdotes recounted, and the criminal acts described are reflected in countless covertly recorded conversations, affidavits, interviews and documents generated by law enforcement agencies and the United States Attorneys Office in Phoenix, Arizona.

The reader should understand that for the protection of the agents, it was necessary to be vague in some places of this book, to use pseudonyms to protect identities, and to mask faces in some of the photographs. Although the investigation has now concluded, some of the operatives still work undercover and continue to receive death threats. This book is a tribute to their bravery and sacrifice.

THE WAR EFFORTAPRIL 2002

Confidential informant Rudy was the catalyst for what would eventually become known as Operation Black Biscuit, the Department of Treasurys Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) masterful sting planned to infiltrate, and ultimately cripple, the Arizona Hells Angels. The notion of using Rudy, who was a legitimate member of the Tijuana-based Solo Angeles Motorcycle Club (or SAMC), to penetrate the Arizona Hells Angels (HAMC) was the brainchild of Phoenix ATF special agent Joseph Slatalla (aka Slats or Beef).

Brash and irreverent, the large Italian bore an uncanny resemblance to the actor Ray Liotta. Beef was an ATF veteran. His career spanned five years in Detroit and six years in Phoenix. He briefly accepted a promotion to supervisor in Miami but returned to Phoenix one year later, dissatisfied with administration and bored with his paper duties. Beef was restless and passions returned him to the streets and to the vicious Arizona biker subculture he had attempted to explore in 1997 before his transfer to Miami in 2001.

Beefs 1997 investigation focused on the Dirty Dozen Motorcycle Club which, in 1996, had begun its long courtship of the largest outlaw biker gang in the world: the Hells Angels. But Beefs efforts to assemble a task force, code named AMEN, floundered in its own stew of misinformation, petty conflicts, and lack of direction. Interagency politics and jurisdictional issues between the Arizona Attorney Generals Office, the County Attorney, and the United States Attorney for Arizona contributed to the operations demise. None of the offices would share information or informants with the others and in the end AMEN failed.

The Dirty Dozen were ultimately absorbed by the Hells Angels. And when Beef returned to Phoenix, he had a choicehe could either atrophy behind a desk for the rest of his career while waiting for retirement or he could take a bold risk and revisit the biker subculture. His decision to form another task force to infiltrate the Hells Angels was not popular, but Beef did what was right, not what was safe, and although most steered clear of his sardonic wit, they listened when he spoke. Beefs was the voice of experienceno nonsense and practicalborne of nineteen months steeped in the murky underworld of outlaw motorcycle gangs (or OMGs), particularly the Hells Angels and their junior club, known as the Red Devils (or RDMC).

Beef knew that the original Solo Angeles were Hispanic outlaw bikers based in Tijuana, Mexico. They had over eighty active members, none of whom resided outside of Mexico and Southern California. Most of the Arizona Hells Angels had never met Solo Angeles club members. Rudy never openly identified himself as a fellow outlaw biker to the Hells Angels. Biker groups were notoriously territorial; the Hells Angels were part of the so-called Big Five that also included the Pagans, Banditos, Outlaws, and Mongols. The Hells Angels, however, preferred to be viewed as the Big Oneno biker group dared flash its club insignias or colors without prior Hells Angels approval.

Each biker group had designated club colors. Solo Angeles colors were orange and black, the colors of Halloween and crushed dirty pumpkins. The Mongols were known as the Black and White, and the Hells Angels were the Big Red Machine. The clubs also had their own nicknames, the Phoenix Hot Headz, the Skull Valley Graveyard Crew, and the Mesa Mob and preferred to be called by their monikers. The mock Solo Angeles (i.e., undercover agents posing as Solo Angeles bikers) would eventually become known as the Orange Crush, or more irreverently, the Pumpkins.

What made Rudy particularly valuable to Beef was his trusted relationship with Robert Johnston Jr. (aka Mesa Bob or Bad Bob), the president of the Mesa Hells Angels chapter. Most of the bikers were known only by their nicknameslike their club colors, their monikers were a kind of brand that not only revealed their character traitsBad Bobbut also identified certain skills and titles they possessed. Mesa Bob, as the president of the Mesa Hells Angels chapter, for example, enjoyed territorial rights and did what he could to preserve them.

The Hells Angels welcomed Rudy into their criminal fraternitythe confidential informant, after all, was a fellow outlawand supervised countless drug and arms deals between Rudy and members of Hells Angels support groups.

Who better to navigate the gang underworld and deliver intelligence to the Phoenix Group I Field Office than a trusted gangster and ATF informant? Who better to introduce (and deflect suspicion from members of the Hells Angels) additional mock Solo Angeles outlaws to the president of the Mesa Club Hells Angels than Rudy?

The idea was novel.

Law enforcement had previously infiltrated other motorcycle clubs through informant introductions of undercover operatives, who eventually gained membership into the target clubs. Police had also formed their own fake clubs and chapters, claiming to be outlaws in order to gain access to a particular biker underworld. But no group of undercover cops had ever assumed the identity of a legitimate outlaw motorcycle club and used that cover to infiltrate the Hells Angels.

Never mind that Beefs proposal to pay Rudy, a doper and multiconvicted felon who had pending federal weapons violations, government monies to deal in methamphetamines and guns in Arizonas criminal biker world was controversial, even risky. It followed Los Angeles ATF special agent John Ciccones inadvertent enlistment of a killer turned paid operative.

Ciccones informant, Michael Kramer, had been a Hells Angel for five years before he approached ATF and offered to become a snitch. What Ciccone didnt know was that the informant had participated in the brutal beheading of Cynthia Garcia, a biker groupie, following Hells Angels festivities at a Mesa Hells Angel clubhouse. The woman had apparently committed the cardinal sindisrespecting a Hells Angeland death was her punishment. Her body was found on Halloween, tossed like discarded trash in a shallow desert wash in Phoenix.