Hells Angels face charges of murder, racketeering

Eleven members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, including eight bikers in the Sonoma County chapter, are accused of running a racketeering enterprise that included murder, assault, maiming, robbery, extortion and witness intimidation, according to a federal indictment unsealed Monday.

Six members of the biker gang were arrested over the weekend when federal agents and local law enforcement officials stormed a gathering outside the Wagon Wheel Saloon on Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa, FBI officials said.

Dozens of bikers were set to take off from the small bar around noon for the Red and White Sonoma County End of Summer Run, a biker rally that had been postponed because of the Wine Country wildfires last month.

Law enforcement officials conducted raids at 15 other locations, including in San Francisco, Fresno and Bos-

ton, said Jack Bennett, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco field office.

“This investigation has uncovered significant criminal activity, and it’s not over yet,” Bennett said at a news conference Monday in San Francisco. “This activity was designed to instill fear in the parts of Santa Rosa that are around these motorcycle gangs. The victims have lost their lives (and) their property, and their neighbors, their sense of safety.”

Agents seized more than a dozen weapons, including several firearms, at least 10 motorcycles, drugs and bloody clothes during the weekend raids, officials said.

Several of the defendants appeared before a federal judge in San Francisco on Monday morning, Assistant United States Attorney Alex Tse said.

Four of the defendants — Brian Wendt, 40, Jonathan “Jon Jon” Nelson, 41, Russell “Rusty” Ott, 64, and Christopher “Rain Man” Ranieri, 49 — face murder conspiracy charges in connection with a July 2014 killing in Fresno. Prosecutors say Wendt killed the victim after the other three defendants lured the person to a Hells Angels clubhouse. The victim’s name is not in the indictment.

The other seven defendants face charges including assault, witness intimidation, maiming and weapons violations in connection with several crimes in California and beyond. They are Raymond “Ray Ray” Foakes, 54, Russell “J.R.” Lyles Jr., 36, Jeremy Greer, 37, Damien Cesena, 36, Brian “Bucky” Burke, 37, Jason “Agro” Cliff, 50, and David Diaz III, 45.

The 11 defendants were indicted Oct. 10 after a three-year investigation by the FBI that revealed crimes dating back to the summer of 2007, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Foakes, a former president of the Hells Angels’ Sonoma County chapter, was arrested in November 2016 on suspicion of sexually assaulting another member’s wife, prosecutors said. He was not charged at the time while detectives continued to investigate the case, but he remained in custody.

Foakes did a threeyear stint in federal prison for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme in which he purchased homes for marijuana grow sites.