Search Results for: rackete

A member of the Aryan Circle (AC) pleaded guilty Thursday to his role in an October 2016 violent assault, as well as conspiring to sell firearms to a convicted felon. Another individual pleaded guilty on April 19, to conspiring with members of the AC to sell methamphetamine. Rodney Shane Holt, aka “Turbo,” 48, of Tyler, Texas, pleaded guilty to assault resulting in serious bodily injury in aid of racketeering, as well as conspiracy to sell firearms to a convicted felon. Holt committed the assault as part of his membership in the AC, a gang that operates in Texas and other states throughout the country. According to court documents, Holt planned and participated in the events surrounding a violent beating of another AC member who wanted to switch his gang affiliation, or “patch over,” from the AC to a different gang. Holt and other AC members carried out the attack in order to “X,” or remove the AC member from the gang, because joining another organization violated the AC’s rules. Holt also sold high caliber firearms to convicted felons. Eulalio Torres-Cadenas, aka “Yayo,” 43, of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, namely 500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing methamphetamine. According to court documents, Torres-Cadenas supplied an AC member with multiple kilograms of methamphetamine in 2016, in the area of Houston, Texas. The AC member then went on to distribute the methamphetamine to buyers in Louisiana, including other AC members. The drug conspiracy that Torres-Cadenas pleaded to was uncovered as part of Operation Noble Virtue, an investigation that has focused on the criminal conduct of the AC’s leadership. The AC is a violent, white supremacist organization that originated in the Texas Department of Corrections and operates in federal prisons across the country, as well as outside prisons in states including Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri. The AC enforces its rules and promotes discipline among its members, prospects, and associates through murder, attempted murder, assault, and threats. Members, and oftentimes associates, are required to follow the orders of higher-ranking members without question.

via justic.gov: Member of White Supremacist Gang Pleads Guilty to Violent Assault and Conspiracy to Sell Firearms

The leader of a violent white supremacist gang that began in Arkansas’ prisons pleaded guilty Wednesday to his involvement in a racketeering and drug conspiracy. Wesley Gullett, the president of the New Aryan Empire, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit racketeering and conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute. As part of Gullett’s plea deal, he and prosecutors agreed to jointly request a sentence of up to 35 years in prison. A federal judge will decide later whether to accept the agreement and sentence Gullett. Prosecutors say New Aryan Empire began as a prison gang in the 1990s and later engaged in narcotics trafficking, witness intimidation and violent acts. Indictments originally returned in 2017 accused 44 gang members of drug and gun crimes, but additional members were accused in 2019 of involvement in violent crimes committed by the group. Gullett escaped from a local Arkansas jail in 2019, along with another prisoner, but was later captured.

via tribtown: White supremacist leader pleads guilty to drug conspiracy

Eine Kampagne will verhindern, dass Steuern in Millionenhöhe an die parteinahe Erasmus- Stiftung gehen. Eine Aufklärungskampagne zur Desiderius-Erasmus-Stiftung hat die Bildungsstätte Anne Frank am Donnerstag in Frankfurt gestartet. Die AfD-Stiftung verbreite extrem rechte und revisionistische Positionen. Bei einem Wiedereinzug der Rechtsaußen in den Bundestag würde sie mit Steuergeld in Millionenhöhe unterstützt. Ein Stiftungsgesetz könne dies verhindern. Dafür will die Organisation jetzt bei Bundestagsabgeordneten werben. In ihrem Kampagnenvideo kommen zahlreiche prominente Unterstützer zu Wort; von Ex-CDU-Generalsekretär Ruprecht Polenz über die ehemalige Sea-Watch-Kapitänin Carola Rackete, den Kabarettisten Max Uthoff und die deutsch-französische Journalistin Beate Klarsfeld bis hin zu Christoph Lübcke – Sohn des ermordeten hessischen CDU-Politikers Walter Lübcke. (…) „Die Erasmus-Stiftung verschafft menschenfeindlichen Positionen einen intellektuellen Anstrich – das macht sie besonders gefährlich.“ Sie bemühe sich in Schulen und Universitäten Fuß zu fassen. Mit Millionen aus dem Bundeshaushalt werde sie weiter an Einfluss gewinnen. Die Funktion der vor drei Jahren gegründete Stiftung sei, „der AfD ein bürgerliches Antlitz zu geben und so auch in gesellschaftliche Kreise vorzudringen, zu denen die Partei selbst längst keinen Zugang mehr hat“. Nur vordergründig seien die von ihr veranstalteten Vorträge und Diskussionsabende harmlos. Das zeige das Führungspersonal, so Cheema. Stiftungsvorsitzende Erika Steinbach etwa nenne AfD-Kinder „die neuen Judenkinder“. Kuratoriumsmitglied Marc Jonge lehne das Erinnern an die Verbrechen des Nationalsozialismus ab. An der Spitze der Stiftung tummelten sich „Rassentheoretiker und Verschwörungsideologen, völkische Pseudowissenschaftler und knallharte Rechtsextreme aus dem Umfeld der Identitären Bewegung und des Antaios-Verlags von Götz Kubitschek“, sagte Cheema und warnte vor den verheerende Wirkung. „Stellen Sie sich vor, dass Hunderte rechtsextremer Kader vom Schlag eines Björn Höcke in die Schulen, Universitäten, Museen, Gedenkstätten, YouTube-Kanäle und Leitmedien strömen.“

via fr: Warnung vor AfD-Stiftung

Judge to rule on new motion for pretrial release. In their bid to keep the founder of an Orange County skinhead gang in prison while he faces charges of agreeing to kill a fellow Aryan Brotherhood member — an alleged murder plot that was never carried out — prosecutors revealed new details about the federal investigation into white gangs across California, including the fact that police conducted surveillance of a concert featuring the defendant’s hardcore band. The Wednesday filing by the U.S. Attorney’s office responds to a motion Donald Mazza, 49, for release from the Sacramento County Jail, where he is in federal pretrial detention facing conspiracy charges. The defense motion says Mazza has medical issues, including kidney problems, that make him particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. On Thursday, Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller denied Mazza’s petition for release, court records show. Mazza has filed two previous motions for release, both of which also failed. In one of them, he cited assistance from an unexpected ally: the man he was allegedly sent out to kill on behalf of the Aryan Brotherhood, who filed a sworn statement saying he was not the least bit concerned of being killed by his longtime “friend,” Mazza. (…) Mazza, also known as “Popeye,” is a founding member of the Southern California skinhead gang called Public Enemy Number One, or PENI. According to prosecutors, he was one of several PENI members granted entrance into the Aryan Brotherhood “so that the AB could spread its influence and get gang members on the streets.” Last year, Mazza was one of roughly two dozen Aryan Brotherhood members and associates to be indicted on racketeering charges in a massive federal probe into the Aryan Brotherhood. The charges include five murders and four alleged murder plots, all allegedly ordered by high-ranking incarcerated Aryan Brotherhood members. Mazza was charged with agreeing to kill Aryan Brotherhood member Michael “Thumper” Trippe on the order or Ronald Dean Yandell, an Aryan Brotherhood commissioner who allegedly ordered the hit from his prison cell, using a contraband cellphone. During one call with Mazza in August 2019, Yandell allegedly expressed his displeasure that another Aryan Brotherhood member had recently been arrested on unrelated murder charges in San Diego before he carried out the kill order. Mazza was the next hitman in line, prosecutors allege.

voa mercurynews: Feds detail Aryan Brotherhood investigation and surveillance as founder of PENI skinhead gang moves for release from California jail

A former member of a white supremacist gang was sentenced Wednesday to 28 months in prison for violently attacking a fellow gang member in 2013. Thomas B. Wilson, then 44, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in March to one felony count of committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering. He admitted directing and aiding in a Nov. 9, 2013, attack at George Winter Park in Fenton, on the banks of the Meramec River. Wilson, two other members of the Aryan Circle gang and one aspiring member built a bonfire at the park and brought the victim and his girlfriend there. They confronted him about “taking sides” within gang factions, and then Wilson co-defendant Thomas Tisher hit the victim from behind with a piece of wood, Wilson’s plea agreement said. Wilson, Tisher and two others dragged the man to the river bank and began beating him with rocks and sticks and their hands and feet, Wilson’s plea said. One man tried to burn the victim’s Aryan Circle tattoos off with a flaming piece of wood before they left him unconscious.

via stltoday: Ex-white supremacist gang member gets more than 2 years in prison for violent Fenton attack