Bandidos MC criminal allegations and incidents in the United States

Five of those – Keith P. Allison, Ronald C. Tenorio, Edward R. Goll, Adan C. Chavez and Tommy Freyta – were arrested during a series of raids in Denver, Golden, Rio Grande County and Thornton on September 27, 2011.

The club's Louisiana faction, which relies on Mexican drug cartels as its primary source of narcotics supply, distributes methamphetamine and, to a lesser extent, cocaine and marijuana, in the state.

[24] In December 1979, Bandidos member William S. "Wheeler" Light was convicted of second-degree murder for the July 21, 1979 killing of off-duty police officer Ronald Euell "Ron" Dean, who was shot in the head at point-blank range through a car window outside a bar in Shreveport.

[26] Shreveport Bandidos members Lloyd Dale Randolph and James R. Shoemake were shot to death with a 9 mm caliber pistol by Dennis Baker as they beat him with an ax handle at his trailer home in Stonewall on June 1, 1986.

Bikers were arrested during a series of raids in three Northwestern states, which resulted in the seizure of narcotics, firearms, U.S. currency, evidence of trafficking in stolen motorcycles and seventy marijuana plants.

The club maintains chapters in Albuquerque, Alamogordo, Las Cruces, Silver City and Roswell, and is also responsible for contract killing, extortion, welfare and bank fraud, and arson.

[42] Bandidos sergeant-at-arms Thomas "Mañana" Giles and club hangaround Michael John Vickery were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Albuquerque on October 19, 2017, during a raid in which more than twenty vehicles and trailers were seized.

[10] On January 26, 2020, Bandidos "prospect" Patrick Alvarado was arrested in possession of a handgun shortly after Philip Quintel, who was "associated with" the Mongols according to prosecutors, was shot to death outside the KiMo Theatre in downtown Albuquerque.

[51] The fifteen Bandidos members, their wives and girlfriends sued the city and police of Shawnee in November 2010, alleging more than a dozen state law and constitutional rights violations.

[57][58] Bandidos members Gary Elsworth Lichtenwalter and Glen Alan Wilhelm assaulted Harris County Sheriff's Office deputy Rodney Scott Morgan at a bar in Houston on February 26, 1974.

Rudolph James "Shakey" Malo, a Bandidos chapter president, was accused of pulling a .357 Magnum pistol on federal agents who raided his apartment on February 10, 1979, as part of the investigation.

[67] The Bandidos were vindicated of Wood's murder when drug lord Jamiel Chagra pleaded guilty to hiring contract killer Charles Harrelson to assassinate the judge.

[14] Two Bandidos – Thomas Lloyd "Hammer" Gerry and Jay Lane Roberts – were charged with the murder of fellow club member "Fat" Jan Colvin, who was found dead in a vacant lot in Irving in November 1978.

[73] Bandidos member Benito "Chamuco" Lopez III was arrested on October 4, 2019, after authorities identified him as the caretaker of a stash house for illegal aliens in Los Ebanos.

[89] In June 2021, charges against Decarlo, Heredia and Robert Farrell Grant III, sergeant-at-arms of the Bandidos support club Brass Knuckles MC, were dismissed by the El Paso County District Attorney's Office.

[92] Lubbock Kinfolk chapter president Gollihugh pleaded guilty in July 2021 to possession of an unregistered NFA firearm, and was sentenced on November 4 to seven years in federal prison.

[94] Numerous Bandidos members, including national secretary-treasurer William Jerry "Frio" Pruitt, were arrested on narcotics and weapons charges in Corpus Christi, Dallas, and Houston during a nationwide law enforcement operation against the club on February 22, 1985.

On September 2, 1991, Bandidos members Ernest "Neto" Cortinas, Eric Wayne Green and Edward Salas carried out a drive-by shooting on the home of Forest Zudell, a delinquent debtor, in Mount Morris Township, Michigan, resulting in the death of a fourteen-year-old boy.

[96] Bandidos national sergeant-at-arms Thomas Lloyd "Hammer" Gerry began trafficking in drugs as early as 1989 and was imprisoned in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from 1990 until he was paroled on January 5, 2005.

Retired from the club, he again began dealing methamphetamine in 2007 and headed an organization with links to the Aryan Brotherhood and La Familia Michoacana which operated from Fort Worth until August 20, 2009, when nineteen members were indicted and arrested by the DEA.

[101] On September 26, 2011, three members of the Bandidos' San Antonio chapter – sergeant-at-arms Gerardo "Junior Ray" Gomez Jr, Jason Earl "Sarge" Morris and Angel Cevallos – were arrested by FBI agents and local authorities, and charged with possession with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine.

[103] On March 27, 1986, several members of the Bandidos from southwest Texas were arrested as part of Operation One Percenter, a nationwide investigation into motorcycle gangs by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), charged with the arson of a tool company in Amarillo.

[105][106][107][108] Frederick "Fast Fred" Cortez and Richard Steven "Scarface" Merla, two members of the Bandidos' Southwest San Antonio chapter, shot and killed Roberto Lara after luring him to a secluded area in Atascosa County in January 2002.

Merla was serving a forty-year prison sentence for the murder of boxer Robert Quiroga when he testified that he and Cortez killed Lara on the orders of Bandidos national vice-president John Xavier Portillo.

[110] Bandidos member Richard Merla was arrested in 2006 and pleaded no contest in 2007 to murdering Robert Quiroga, International Boxing Federation super flyweight champion between 1990 and 1993, on August 16, 2004.

[118] As part of a nationwide law enforcement operation against the club, thirteen Bandidos members were arrested in Washington on drugs and weapons charges on February 22, 1985, eleven in Bellingham and two in Everett and Puyallup.

[31] Thirty-two members and associates of the Bandidos' Bellingham and Missoula, Montana chapters were indicted in the U.S. District Court in Seattle on June 10, 2005, charged with conspiracy to commit murder, witness tampering, violent crime in aid of racketeering, and drug and weapons offenses.

Several weapons, including firearms and knives, methamphetamine, marijuana, stolen motorcycles and motor vehicle parts, and over $25,000 in cash were seized during subsequent raids and arrests, which resulted from a two-year investigation into a variety of criminal activity by the club.

[120] In October 2006, Wegers reached an unusual plea agreement through representation by his attorney Jeffrey A. Lustick, under which he received twenty-two months' credit for time served and three years on supervised release.

Despite this being a felony conviction, the plea agreement accepted by judge John C. Coughenour allowed Wegers to continue to participate in Bandidos events, associate with known felons, and travel worldwide with court permission.