Neo-Nazi’s trial to start Monday
FBI set up fake hitman sting
When Adrian Apodaca moved to South Florida last year, the self-described white supremacist was telling friends he needed a new identity because he had killed a lot of people — including a man in New Mexico known as “Machete Bob.”
Apodaca was living in a trailer behind the Davie clubhouse of the Dirty White Boys Motorcycle Club when a “cooperating witness” informed the FBI of his whereabouts.
FBI agents launched an undercover sting, saying they were concerned that Apodaca posed a violent threat — especially after
law enforcement in Albuquerque confirmed he was the prime suspect in the unsolved slaying of Machete Bob.
Apodaca was arrested last October after driving more than 400 miles from South Florida to Georgia — accompanied by an undercover cop — to commit what he thought was a contract murder for people who would reward him with $5,000 cash and a stolen identity.
Agents seized a 54-inch metal garrote, a pistol, ammunition, gas masks, a bulletproof vest, knives, zip ties and other items when he was arrested.
His trial is scheduled to start Monday in federal court in West Palm Beach on allegations that could put him in prison for the rest of his life. He has pleaded not guilty to six charges, including the murder-for-hire plot in Broward County and Georgia, robbery, drug trafficking and firearms offenses, all linked to the sting.
Among the evidence against him are dozens of hours of surveillance recordings of him discussing his alleged past crimes, transporting what he thought was cocaine and plotting the murder, which he thought was real.
Apodaca’s defense says there is no proof he committed any of the 20 or so killings that he supposedly bragged about and that Apodaca, 44, has a long history of severe mental illness and hospitalizations, starting when he was 13.
He has claimed to be one of the founding members of the Vinlanders Social Club, a violent, racist skinhead group that supports nationalist white supremacy. The group was formed in 2003 and is active in several states, including Florida, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups and extremists.
Apodaca has several tattoos, including a black-andred Nazi swastika and eagle tattoo on his stomach, his arrest records show.
The informant’s name has been shielded in court records. Prosecutors identified him only as someone who held an official role in the motorcycle club, which they say sometimes provides support to the notorious Outlaws motorcycle gang. The informant was also “affiliated with various white supremacy groups,” they wrote.
It all began early last year when Apodaca told the informant he had committed “multiple murders in the past” including fatally shooting “Machete Bob” with a crossbow.
Though Apodaca has not been charged, a 44-year-old man named Robert “Machete Bob” McGuire, disappeared from his Albuquerque trailer in August 2015. His body was found in February 2016 in a shallow grave in nearby Valencia County. Albuquerque police, who did not respond to requests for comment last week, later told the Albuquerque Journal that McGuire may have been killed with a crossbow.
A neighbor heard McGuire screaming and saw a woman and a man, with a crossbow and a bloody arrow, leaving his trailer. McGuire was never seen alive again. His family said he acquired the “Machete Bob” nickname after his hand was severely injured by a machete during a fight, the newspaper reported.
Prosecutors in South Florida say Apodaca claimed involvement in the deaths of some 20 people, including drug dealers, and he asked the informant to search online, in May 2016, to see if there were any active arrest warrants for Apodaca or any information about the violent acts.
Apodaca hand-wrote a list of names of people he claimed he had killed, assaulted or helped make “disappear,” prosecutors wrote. He also wanted a gun and said he had “unfinished business” in New Mexico.
In September, Apodaca was introduced to a group of undercover law enforcement officers posing as wealthy, violent members of a criminal organization with white supremacy extremist beliefs. He later attended a party with them at a trailer park in Broward County.
He was secretly recorded talking about his history with the Vinlanders Social Club in Arizona and bragging that he had killed a lot of people, including an incident when he claimed he and his friends posed as cops to rob a drug house. He said his friend “mowed everybody down” and they made close to a million dollars. Later, he said they made about $3 million.
Apodaca said he was “keeping a very low profile” and was “looking to do a whole ID change thing.”
During the next few weeks, the undercover investigators paid Apodaca to commit an escalating series of criminal acts, including delivering a mysterious duffle bag; performing surveillance and bodyguard duty while an agent met with a man who supposedly owed him money; and delivering what he thought was about $250,000 worth of cocaine.
Agents said that Apodaca, unsolicited, offered to kidnap the debtor, make him sign over the title to his car and “then maybe we’ll let him go.”
Apodaca later agreed to murder the so-called debtor in exchange for $5,000 cash and fraudulent identity papers, agents said. He offered to kill the man when he was relaxing and said he would perform like a “military operative.”
Apodaca wrote up a list of items he needed and handed it over on Oct. 22. The note began “After much thought and foresight … ” and listed a handgun, Xtreme Penetrator ammunition, a gas mask, body armor and bear repellent spray, which he said he would use to smoke out anyone doing counter-surveillance for the victim.
On Oct. 28, Apodaca and the undercover officer drove 400 miles north to a motel in Valdosta, Ga., where they planned to spend the night before driving to Atlanta to carry out the contract killing. Their entire conversation during the seven-hour trip was recorded.
They were met at the motel by a second undercover officer who handed Apodaca a 9mm Glock pistol, which secretly had been disabled.
Agents swooped in and arrested Apodaca after he aimed the gun at various points around the motel room.
Apodaca has prior convictions for resisting law enforcement, criminal confinement, pointing a firearm, possession of ammunition by a felon, rioting and street gang activity, records show.
He was found legally incompetent during a federal case in Arizona in 2011 and was sentenced to time served after his mental competency was restored, records show. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder, according to court records.
The self-employed tattoo artist has been receiving Social Security disability payments since age 20.
Prosecutors Lawrence LaVecchio and Paul Schwartz declined to comment on the case.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Neison Marks also declined to comment.
But in court records, the defense is asking U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra to prevent prosecutors from telling the jury about what it calls the unproven allegations about Apodaca’s past. The defense called it “a barrage of inflammatory” information about unproven murders, robberies, home invasions, drug trafficking and ethnic cleansing.
Court records show Apodaca is not facing any criminal charges linked to any of those allegations, many of which the defense said have not even been tied to specific dates or times.
The judge has not yet ruled on the defense request to focus the trial tightly on the allegations linked to the undercover sting.
Jury selection is expected to start Monday in federal court in West Palm Beach; the trial could last a week or more.