First guilty plea in massive Aryan Brotherhood case entered in court

SACRAMENTO — One of the defendants in a massive murder and drug smuggling case involving the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang pleaded guilty Monday in Sacramento federal court, a signal that prosecutors may have gained a potential source of information as they pursue the case.

Samuel Keeton, 41, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to a count of conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin.

Keeton had been held without bail at the Sacramento County Main Jail since June 2019 facing charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin for Aryan Brotherhood leaders in prison while he was out on parole.

He is the first defendant to enter a guilty plea in a case that federal officials have described as a major blow to the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist prison gang that officials say orchestrated murders for hire from their prison cells, oversaw the distribution of narcotics outside prison walls and the smuggling of cell phones to inmates in California state prisons.

Mueller said in court that Keeton’s plea agreement includes a five-page “factual basis” for the plea that spells out details of the agreement, but that had not yet been filed Monday morning.

Officials have described the defendants as so dangerous that prosecutors originally sought an order to allow the case to proceed by video conferencing rather than have them attend court sessions. The COVID-19 pandemic has since made that moot, with hearings now taking place through Zoom video.

Authorities originally charged 16 people, tying the prison gang to at least five inmate murders and orders to kill four more people, and court filings say investigators “uncovered and disrupted multiple murder plots targeting AB member, AB associates and other individuals who — according to Aryan Brotherhood members — had violated the gang’s expectations or code of conduct.”

Six of the defendants already are serving life terms in prison.

“Keeton played a critical role in picking up the drugs in Southern California, driving them to Sacramento for distribution, and then driving the drug proceeds back down to Southern California for allocation among the conspiracy’s participants,” prosecutors wrote in court filings. “Keeton also participated in a plot to smuggle contraband into Folsom state prison using a lawyer and a paralegal during a fictitious client meeting.”

The case stemmed from years of investigation of Aryan Brotherhood members in prisons from Imperial County to Lassen County and included U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wiretaps of 1,800 phone calls among inmates using illegal cell phones inside prison cells.