Jury convicts former Bandidos leaders
Charges included murder, extortion, and racketeering
SAN ANTONIO — After nearly three months of testimony and fewer than three days of deliberations, a federal jury in San Antonio on Thursday delivered a gut punch to the Texasbased Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
The jury of eight men and four women found former Bandidos Motorcycle Club national president Jeffrey Fay Pike, 62, of Conroe, and ex-vice president John Xavier Portillo, 58, of San Antonio, guilty of all charges they faced in a 13-count racketeering indictment.
Although none of the charges were directly connected, the verdict came on the three-year anniversary of Texas’ deadliest biker shootout involving the Bandidos and another motorcycle club in Waco.
Pike and Portillo looked disappointed upon hearing they were convicted of crimes that include racketeering conspiracy, murder, extortion and drug dealing (or aiding and abetting those activities.) The convictions could lead to life in prison, without parole, when they are sentenced this fall, their lawyers noted. Both men plan to appeal.
During the federal trial, the two leaders challenged the government’s contention that they were the bosses of what the feds called “the mafia on two wheels.” The pair denied ordering, authorizing or sanctioning the criminal activity of their fellow Bandidos, and Pike claimed local Bandidos chapters were autonomous and didn’t act on orders of national leaders.
But federal witnesses, including ex-Bandidos, and wiretaps of Portillo’s phone, along with
body-wire recordings worn by cooperators, helped sway jurors to agree with prosecutors.
“These kinds of cases are so hard (to win) because of the vast resources available to the prosecution,” said Dick DeGuerin, Pike’s lead attorney.
Mark Stevens, Portillo’s lead lawyer, said he respected the jury’s decision, but “we saw it differently. He’s not guilty.”
Pike was national president of the Bandidos from mid-2005 until he stepped down in January 2016 after his arrest. Pike picked Portillo as his national vice president in 2013. Portillo had been in that position until he was arrested, also in January 2016.
‘At war’ with Cossacks
None of the charges related to the May 17, 2015, shootout at Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco that involved other Bandidos, members of the Cossacks Motorcycle Club and police. That incident resulted in nine bikers being killed, 20 injured and nearly 200 being arrested on state charges of engaging in organized crime. Pike and Portillo were not there.
But the federal jury did convict Pike and Portillo of conspiracy to murder and assault members and associates of the Cossacks. Government witnesses testified that Portillo, with Pike’s approval, declared in 2013 or 2014 — before the Waco incident — that the Bandidos were “at war” with the Cossacks. According to that testimony, a number of violent acts — before and after the Waco brawl and gunfight — were committed by the Bandidos around Texas in furtherance of this “war,” including in Fort Worth, Gordon, Odessa, Port Aransas and Crystal City.
“There’s layers and layers, as the jury heard, of levels of protection for those at the highest levels,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Fuchs, the lead prosecutor. “They could give orders, tell only those closest to them about them, and then they would be filtered down so that when it came to trial, they could claim it was hands-off and they had no role. The jury really saw through that.”
Among the murders the jury heard about were that the killing of Geoffrey Brady, a supporter of the Cossacks shot by Bandidos members in December 2014 at a Fort Worth bar; the murder of street gang member Robert Lara, who was shot by Bandidos in Atascosa County on Jan. 31, 2002; and Anthony Benesh a purported Hells Angels member who was shot outside an Austin restaurant by Bandidos on March 18, 2006.
“The convictions … make it clear that the DEA and the Justice Department will bring organized criminal enterprises, like the Bandidos, to justice,” said Will R. Glaspy, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Houston Division, which includes San Antonio. “DEA, along with our law enforcement partners, remain committed to removing violent criminals and drug traffickers from our communities.”
The clashes cited in the federal trial were over the Cossacks wearing patches on their biker vests that said “Texas,” which is considered the home base and territory of the Bandidos.
Filling the power void
Pike had been out on bond since his arrest, but Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra remanded him into custody after the verdict and set his sentencing for Oct. 1. The judge set sentencing for Portillo for Sept. 24.
Fuchs said whenever there are power voids in any type of criminal organization, people generally step up to fill in.
“We have heard from our own law enforcement sources that it has had a dismantling effect on the Bandidos organization just over the last three years,” Fuchs said.
William Morian, a Jasper lawyer who represents Bandidos USA, said the club respects but is disappointed in the verdict.
“It was … a case based largely on circumstantial evidence and testimony of informants once associated with the club who were trying to save their own hides,” Morian said in a phone interview. “These defendants were put at a tremendous disadvantage by being forced to try their cases together. I believe both are good men brought down by bad men once associated with the club.”