Hell's Angels

Some wheelers may be dealers

During the 1960s, the motorcycle gang known as the Hell's Angels roared its way through the California Dream, its leather-jacketed and swastikaed members terrorizing entire towns with lead pipes and bike chains. It now appears that the gang has turned itself into a conglomerate of sorts: 18 Angels were arraigned in San Francisco on conspiracy charges, and federal officials claimed in a 31-page indictment that the gang trafficked extensively in illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine, LSD and speed. They also contended that gang members had murdered and threatened murder in order to protect their share of the lucrative market.

According to the FBI, which began organizing a probe of the Angels two years ago, the gang has between 250 and 300 members in the San Francisco area, with chapters elsewhere in California and in New York, Ohio and the Carolinas. "The investigation established that the organization existed for the purpose of violating the law," said Jerry Jenson, regional director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "The club's bylaws clearly spell out that members will engage in distribution of drugs of a specified quantity and quality in order to remain members." By far the most popular drug sold by the Angels was methamphetamine (speed); investigators estimate that the club controlled up to 90% of northern California's methamphetamine trade. They indicate that the drugs were produced by the cyclists in five labs capable of turning out $160,000 worth of pills daily.

Most of the indicted Angels were arrested in a raid on some 30 locations throughout the Bay area. Among those apprehended were the gang's Oakland leader, Ralph ("Sonny") Barger, 40, and his wife Sharon, 29, a onetime beauty contest winner.

Officials seized a pound of speed and a slight amount of heroin, as well as a small arsenal of firearms, including some 1,000 rounds of ammunition. They also found a silk-screen device for manufacturing fake driver's licenses and the insignia and star of the California highway patrol, which the Angels could have used to disguise a car so that they appeared to be members of the forces of law and order.

Federal officers met with little resistance, but at the Angels' "clubhouse," a two-story stucco building in Oakland, they watched while 20 or so gang members roared off on their motorcycles. Oakland police were waiting two blocks away. In Sacramento, according to the drug enforcement administration, one Angel had a quantity of speed spilling from his shirt when he was arrested.

The trial of the Angels is set to begin in mid-August. Each defendant could draw up to 20 years. But even with convictions, says one federal official, "there will be more of them out of prison than in, and you can't change years of a pattern overnight."

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