LAS VEGAS - A federal indictment unsealed Thursday alleges that 14 members of a white supremacist gang directed beatings and stabbings inside and outside Nevada state prisons and sold drugs from behind bars.
The indictment accuses the gang of extorting money from inmate families and stealing and using fraudulent identification documents and credit cards in what acting U.S. Attorney for Nevada Steven Myhre called "an ongoing effort to finance and spread their message of hatred and racial supremacy throughout Nevada."
The gang was responsible for manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine and marijuana in Nevada prisons and in the cities of Las Vegas, Reno and Pahrump, said Steven Martinez, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Las Vegas.
"The goal of this investigation, accomplished by these arrests, was to significantly dismantle the Aryan Warriors organization by removing its leadership in the Nevada prison system and disrupting its street program," Martinez said.
The indictment identifies inmates Ronald "Joey" Sellers, Daniel Joseph Egan, James Milton Wallis, Guy Edward Almony and Las Vegas resident Ronnie Lee Jones as leaders of the Aryan Warriors prison gang. Others are identified as lower-ranking members.
The five-count indictment accuses all 14 of being part of a criminal racketeering organization, or RICO. The charge carries the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
Sellers, Egan and another member face an additional charge of engaging in violent crime in aid of racketeering, stemming from allegations they directed stabbings of inmates in prison and a beating of a person at a home in Las Vegas.
All 14 men were scheduled to appear Friday before a U.S. magistrate judge in Las Vegas. The investigation began in January 2004, after state prison officials learned of allegations of witness tampering and violence against the family of a former gang leader, officials said.
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