Yet as they made abundantly clear at their gathering in San Antonio, the Bandidos are not remotely intimidated. Eventually, Pike met some Bandidos at a Harley shop in Houston and at the strip joints on Gessner Road, and in 1979 he became a prospect. He quickly moved his way up in the club, becoming president of one of Houstons chapters in 1988 at the age of 33 and a national vice president eleven years later. For a second, I didnt know what to say. Today the police seem more determined than ever to bring the Bandidos down. George Wegers was the International President (El Presidente) of Bandidos MC from 1998 until 2005. police raid Texas massage parlor. The Bandidos have many Hispanic members, while blacks appear non-existent. The renegade motorcycle gang? He looked like just another middle-aged man who had spent the morning working in the yard. We mourn with the family of George Wegers for this great loss. Kerr identified three Bandidos in a police lineup as his possible assailants. [56], In recent years the club has also expanded heavily into Spain, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, England and Ireland. In one corner of the garage were his Harley-Davidsons. 5 talking about this. Copyright 2010, Peter Edwards. None of my guys shot some goofy Hells Angels wannabe who meant nothing to us, and as for that Canada mess, I didnt have any contact with that chapter up there for weeks before those killings. [67][68], The United States Department of Justice and Europol consider the Bandidos to be a criminal organization. From traditional burial and cremation services (with or without ceremony), to memorials and life celebrations, to out of town shipment and local cemetery monuments, you may confidently rely on us to provide options that truly meet your funerary needs. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. Though Wegers returned to the Bandidos after serving a 20-month prison sentence for racketeering charges, he is no longer in the club because of the documentary, Ojemann said, without specifying which one. Yes, they love riding fast. Wegers lived, and still lives, in Bellingham. Stevens pressed Ojemann on whether he had ever said before that he left the club by mutual agreement. George Wegers, the former Bandidos national president, spent 20 months in jail after he and some other members reached a plea agreement, the Seattle Times reported. [46], There are approximately ninety Bandidos chapters in Europe. Get down! he shouted again. Weve got guys who own their own businesses, guys who work for oil companies, guys who are in the computer industry. Some police departments formed motorcycle gang task forces. There were more bear hugs and kisses as more Bandidos arrived. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. When the hearse stopped, members of Chucos own San Antonio chapter carried his casket to the grave site. He had a passion for motorcycles from a very young age, possibly spurred on by a Harley Davidson motorcycle owned by one of his neighbours that he used to see parked out the front. Some of them downed beers, ignoring the handwritten signs on the church doors that read Please, no drinking on church property. One Bandido, pretending he had a rifle in his hands, aimed at the police helicopter and fired off a few imaginary rounds. [57][58], In 2001, the Bandidos were established in Thailand via a merger with the Diablos Motorcycle Club in Pattaya. Fall From Power. He was 36 years old, the son of one of the first members, Steve Panhead Jonas, who had been shot to death at a San Antonio bar in 1983. They had come to pay their respects to one of their early members, Luis Bonilla, a.k.a. In 2003 George Wegers had just come in as the Bandidos International President and there are mentions in the book about the control that Wegers attempted to place over how each of the chapters was run, however the author states that he mainly wanted to leave the club to look after his family and business. Oh, hell, its not like its any secret where I live. [36] Another requirement is that Bandidos must follow the philosophy "All members are your brothers and your family", and must "not fear authority and have a general disdain for the rules of society". They walked back outside, looked up, and saw a helicopter coming right at them. Chambers was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison, leading some police officials to speculate that the Bandidos, without their founder, would disband. David J. Phillip/AFP via Getty Images Updated 7:28 p.m. Was it smart expanding into different countries in the first place? Up in Washington, one of our Bandidos is an engineer at Microsoft.. And in 1988 almost all the Bandidos national officers, including Ronnie Hodge and Stubs Schmick, who was then a national vice president, were arrested by federal agencies for conspiring to bomb homes and automobiles belonging to members of the Banshees, an upstart Dallas motorcycle club. [17] The third Bandidos international president, James Edward "Sprocket" Lang, as well as his successor, Charles Craig "Jaws" Johnston, were each sentenced to ten years' imprisonment on drug charges in November 1998. 'George Wegers ' has Passed Away. There was booze and drugs everywhere. He was turning off Interstate 5 in Skagit County, Washington State, near his home when his bike spun out of control. Bring on the Shiplap? [01] Still handsome and charismatic at near-eighty, Ralph Hubert "Sonny" Barger Jr. was the main mover in transforming the Hells Angels, who have always attracted a significant number of misfits and criminals, ['Hells Angel,' p. 03, 87 - 91; p. 124 "Most of us [in 1965] were card-carrying . The Houston FBI agent who investigates us has called me so many times that Ive got his number on my speed dial. They love the tough biker persona. San Antonio is known as the jungle. The lions den, Ojemann said. Boxing champs killer, as fed witness, testifies against the Bandidos property tells of the clubs violence, drugs and Jeff Pike took the reins of the Bandidos until he was arrested in January 2016, according to testimony. This is significantly less time than the 20 years that the federal sentencing guidelines could have seen him facing. He felt a hot wave of panic sweep . Dont you fing wish you were a Bandido? said F.O., which I later learned stood for F Off; then he introduced me to two women whom he described as my two Old Ladies: Meja, a blond beauty who has been with him for 26 years, and Crystal, a brunet college student who has been with him for 4 years. And the truth is that I sometimes do get jealous of all the time he spends with the club. I bought another round, and then anotherasking questions the entire time about Bandido life to anyone who would look my way. The men roared with laughter. [22], According to the club's website, the Bandidos' Western Hemisphere chapters became autonomous from the international chapters in Europe and Australia on July 17, 2007. Guillermo has been with the Express-News for 20 years, and has covered federal court and its investigative agencies for most of that time. The motto of Niagara University, "Ut Omnes Te Cognoscant," translated means "That All May Know You.". George Wegers Bandidos MC George Wegers Early Life / Family Life. Police say the letter has a different meaning standing for "murder" or "meth." The gang's founder died of cancer in 1999. You know, were not all that different than anyone else. Throughout the seventies, they were arrested for dealing drugs, running prostitution rings, extorting money from the owners of roadhouses and strip jointseven operating illegal pit bull fights. As part of his role as the Bandidos International President, or El Preisdente, as it is often referred to within the Bandidos, he decided to move the clubs headquarters from Texas to Bellingham, Washington, although the Bandidos will always be considered as a Texas outlaw motorcycle club. As part of the investigation law enforcement placed wire taps on his phone, where he was said to have told Christopher Horlock, the Bandidos National Secretary that he was not to talk with federal agents. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. Even a handful of European Bandidos had flown in for the occasion, borrowing motorcycles from members of the San Antonio chapter so they too could ride. They become Bandidos because they love being known as the badasses. The cops drive by here just about every day just to see what Im up to. Chambers and other Bandidos made the dealers dig their own graves and then set their bodies on fire before burying them, Texas Monthly wrote. The coffin was lowered into the ground, and a mariachi band sang Te vas, ngel mo (You Leave, Angel of Mine). Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. George Weger was taken to Skagit Valley Hospital. In 1998 George Wegers became the International President of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club,Jeff Pikewas the Vice President for much of this time. I know theyre trying to pin everything on us, he said. And no one, absolutely fing no one, is going to take that brotherhood away.. In that era there were already a number of hard-core biker clubs scattered throughout the country, including the Outlaws, the Pagans, and, of course, the Hells Angels, which had been formed shortly after World War II. Its the Bandidos! yelled the man in the parking lot. He had introduced himself only as F.O., and he was one of the most intimidating-looking men Ive ever seen. Lenny, who was married with four kids, worked for an electric cooperative in the Hill Country. Guillermo Contreras/San Antonio Express-News, John Davenport / San Antonio Express-News, Texas chain with San Antonio bakeries files for bankruptcy, Report: San Antonio Rep. 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[34] Prospective members must undertake a three-stage process before being initiated, beginning as a "hangaround", before becoming a "prospect" and then "probation". [47] The first European chapter opened in Marseille in France in 1989. Please received our heartfelt condolences. Members were accused of conspiracy to commit murder, witness . Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. Undercover operations in the eighties led to arrests over almost one hundred Bandidos in eight states, including most national officers. Stevens asked him if he had told agents he left the club after losing interest in the club over matters he didnt agree with. Jesus, my fing cholesterol, one of them said. Friends and families of the deceased are mourning the passing of their loved and cherished George Wegers . However most original recruits came from the Greater Houston area, including Chambers, his right-hand man Ronnie Hodge and another founder Robert "Grandpa Bob" Shields. A couple of undercover police officers who follow the club had told me that Bandidos officers never discuss anything with citizens. Theyre not going to be real receptive to a reporter showing up, one officer said. I have no idea what happened to any of them., Pike sighed and tossed his empty bottled water into a trash can. Hasnt the motorcycle world been taken over by lawyers, doctors, and advertising executives, all those self-proclaimed chromosexuals who pull back their hair in neat ponytails and don designer sunglasses and expensive black leather jackets so that they can take leisurely rides through the countryside on sunny weekend afternoons? According to a 2007 Texas Monthly article, they had a patchwork of tattoos, long beards, wild hair and nicknames like "Pecker," "Revolver," "Deadweight" and "Log Cabin." Well, if they are committing crimes, I dont see them doing it, she said. Every man whos ever been president of the Bandidos has been brought down, and its only a matter of time before Mr. Pike gets brought down too., On an impulse, I sent an e-mail to the Web site, asking if the 51-year-old Pike would agree to an interview. Pike told me that he had been an altar boy at a Catholic church in California, where he was born and raised. Federal prosecutors have gone so far as to indict Bandidos under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a federal statute originally intended to destroy Mafia families, claiming that the club is an organized criminal enterprise that resorts to intimidation, extortion, violence and threats of violence against rival motorcycle clubs to maintain its power, territory and profits. This past August, the federal government also admitted in a court filing that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with other investigative agencies, was carrying on active investigations into the club. [14] Ronnie Hodge was sentenced to five years in prison in December 1988 for conspiring to bomb homes and automobiles belonging to members of a rival club, and he died of heart disease in 1992. Careful, now, goddammit, be careful, someone said. This is the one and only official Facebook page for George Wegers, the former National and International President of the largest motorcycle club in. You probably have no inkling that they were once the terrors of Texas, so fearsome that when a rumor spread through a town that they were coming, people literally headed inside their homes and locked their doors. SEATTLE - The president of the Bandidos motorcycle club was sentenced to 20 months in prison Friday in a deal that will allow him to retain his position in the George Wegers, 54, was one of 32 people in Washington, Montana and South Dakota indicted last year as federal officials raided the Bellingham-based gang. Ojemann is the latest ex-insider to testify against his former Bandidos brothers at the racketeering trial in San Antonio of Pike and ex-national vice president John Xavier Portillo. Hodge was nicknamed "Mr. For me and my friends, the Bandidos were like the bogeymen. lifted one of his meaty arms and poked me so hard in the chest with his forefinger that I thought my sternum was going to crack. . God, Daddy was famous for the way he could throw a punch. That's what authorities believe led to the shootout and Waco. He is charged in several different conspiracy counts, including a conspiracy to traffic in motor vehicles and motor-vehicle parts. As he turned westbound to exit onto Highway 20, the motorcycle went off the road, according to the Washington State Patrol. As I got in my rental car, I heard the familiar whomp-whomp-whomp of the police helicopter. In the helicopters open door were a couple of men in police uniforms holding binoculars. Get down! my father yelled, as if he thought the Bandidos might shoot us. They might do a burglary here and there. If you needed violence done, you put in a call to San Antonio., Ojemann said Houston had to be more laid back., It was the big boss backyard, Ojemann said. Police investigators have found racial paraphernalia in raids on the gang. Defense attorneys criticized federal prosecutors for stitching together a racketeering case based on minor felonies and misdemeanors. People who worked in the nearby stores and businesses rushed outside to get a better look. Arent they long gone, artifacts of the Easy Rider era? Built like a professional wrestler, he had thick black hair and a black Fu Manchu mustache, and just below his chin was a tuft of beard tied up with string and held in place by a fourteen-karat gold skull with diamonds in the eyes. Briefly the Canadian president. Under terms of the plea agreement entered into on May 5, 2006, WEGERS must move out of, and refrain from working in . His preference was also to slow down expansion, particularly internationally. IF YOU WERENT LIVING HERE THIRTY or forty years ago, you might not have any idea who the Bandidos are. But the Bandidos kept right on growing, opening new chapters throughout the country. He had no visible tattoos and no facial hair except for a neatly groomed goatee, and his crew cut was flecked with gray. And then, as if given a silent cue, several of them lifted their hands in unison and flashed their middle fingers toward the sky. In surveillance photos, they saw the Expect no mercy patch on his vest, which is the Bandidos equivalent of the Purple Heart, given to any member who has drawn blood or spilled his own blood in defense of the club. The order was established in 1625 as the . Benesh, who had been trying to start an Austin chapter of the Hells Angels, had been shot in the head, apparently by an unseen sniper, as he was leaving a North Austin restaurant with his girlfriend and two children. [21] In 2007, the Bandidos' Canadian chapters went defunct following the internal Shedden massacre. They promised us there would be no trouble, he said hesitantly as the Bandidos parked their bikes and began hugging and kissing one another on the mouththe traditional Bandido greeting. And in the middle of each card was the phrase Bandido by profession, Biker by trade, Lover by choice, You have just had the honor of meeting , which was followed by that particular members signature. 2006 October, 2006. Another raced down the parking lot, hit his brakes, leaned his entire body to the left, whipped his motorcycle around, and then raced the other way. Bandidos Book The Fat Mexican: The Bloody Rise of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club by Alex Caine. 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