Aryan member a top 10 fugitive
Houston ex-con has a swastika tattooed on neck
A Houston ex-convict and member of one of the nation’s largest white supremacist prison gangs has joined the state’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Danny Ray “Outlaw” Ferguson Jr., who has a swastika tattoo on his neck and served three stretches in prison, was placed on the list Wednesday by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Ferguson, 39, is a confirmed member of the Aryan Circle gang and “should be considered armed and dangerous,” warned a DPS bulletin.
A reward of up to $7,500 is being offered for information leading to his capture, and anyone with information about him is asked to call 800252-8477.
The Aryan Circle is one of five white supremacist prison gangs operating in Texas and one of the largest in the country, according to a recent state-by-state review of the gangs by the Anti-Defamation League.
The gang has long been a rival of The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas in and outside the prison system.
Each group is considered so dangerous that any confirmed members are required to serve their sentences locked up 23 hours a day in one-man cells away from the general prison population.
Ferguson has been wanted since August for allegedly violating his parole, which should have ended in November.
He had been sentenced to three years for choking a woman he was dating, according to files. He previously served time in state prison for assault, gun possession, methamphetamine possession and evading arrest.
He has ties to Baytown and Channelview and previously worked as a carpenter, mechanic and auto body repairman, according to authorities.
The Aryan Circle has kept a relatively low profile with law enforcement in recent years, but the escalation of the search for Ferguson indicates the gang is still being watched closely by the state.
The gang is unique in that women can join. The group gained wide public attention nearly a decade ago when a member, Dennis Clem, killed two Louisiana police officers in an ambush at a motel.
Clem, who also was killed at the scene, had been on a killing spree that began days earlier in Houston when he shot and killed two black teens.
The Aryan Circle also was implicated in 2013, when federal authorities arrested 13 former state prison guards on corruption charges for taking bribes to smuggle cellphones, drugs and tobacco to prisoners.
That probe began when authorities arrested the gang’s members trying to smuggle stolen sport utility vehicles from Corpus Christi to the Texas-Mexico border.