VENTURA — Climaxing a yearlong inquiry into the local Hells Angels chapter, investigators said Tuesday that the arrests of nine club members have broken a drug ring that targeted students as they left middle and high school campuses.
Meanwhile, authorities said that county prosecutors have stepped up a separate drug and tax-evasion case against local Hells Angels President George Christie Jr., calling witnesses in recent weeks before a criminal grand jury.
Sheriff Bob Brooks, whose camouflaged narcotics unit arrested four men after descending on their Ventura clubhouse Monday night, said that $27,000 in cash, 15 weapons and drugs valued at $364,000 have been seized from local club members since January 1998.
Undercover officers have bought drugs 25 times from Hells Angels members or their associates over the same period, Brooks said. Some of those buys were made as Ventura secondary students left school, he said.
Suspects typically peddled plastic bags containing two or three Valium pills to teenagers for $1 a pill, or sold them so-called designer drugs--Vicodin for $3 a tablet and the methamphetamine called Ecstasy for $20 a tablet--investigators said.
Among the seized weapons displayed by Brooks at a news conference were a "sniper rifle," a sawed-off shotgun, a hunter's rifle with bayonet, a semiautomatic shotgun, a machete, assorted knives, brass knuckles and a stun gun.
"The Hells Angels like to portray themselves as misunderstood recreational bikers who are harassed by the police," he said. "We arrested these suspects not because of their club membership, but because they deal drugs that end up on our streets and in our schools."
Brooks noted that police were criticized in March 1998 for their high-profile patrols of the club's 50th anniversary celebration in downtown Ventura. And he said the recent arrests show the Hells Angels' true colors. Brooks acknowledged that Tuesday's news conference was aimed at polishing law enforcement's image and was intended to prompt more witnesses to come forward.
The parallel investigations by deputies and prosecutors--while separate inquiries--are seen by Christie, national spokesman for the Hells Angels, as a law enforcement squeeze of him and his associates aimed at convicting him of a major crime.
