President, former member of Asheville Outlaws chapter face federal indictment

President and Treasurer Chris Gagner and former member William Davey of the Asheville Chapter of the American Outlaws Association motorcycle club face charges as part of a sweeping federal grand jury indictment of 27 Outlaws. The indictment alleges that the Outlaws “participated in a criminal enterprise that engaged in a wide range of crimes, including attempted murder, kidnapping, assault, robbery, extortion, witness intimidation, narcotics distribution, illegal gambling, and weapons violations.”

The June 10 indictment, unsealed today, in the Eastern District of Virginia, charges national President Jack Rosga and 26 other Outlaws with a variety of criminal acts, alleging “that the Outlaws motorcycle gang is a highly organized criminal enterprise with a defined, multi-level chain of command” and “Under Rosga’s leadership, the enterprise is alleged to have engaged in violent racketeering activities with the intent to expand its influence and control various parts of the country against rival motorcycle gangs, particularly the Hells Angels.”

Gagner, 37, faces charges of conspiracy to violate federal racketeering laws, conspiracy to commit violence in aid of a conspiracy and distribution of controlled substances. William Davey, 46, a member of the Asheville chapter until this year and a former enforcer, according to the indictment, faces three conspiracy charges along with possession of firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence.

“Today’s arrests of the national president and leadership of the American Outlaws Association mark another aggressive attempt by the Department of Justice to dismantle what the indictment alleges to be a gang whose entire environment revolves around violence,” said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride in an announcement.

The 50-page indictment details an alleged criminal conspiracy since 2005 that included assaults on rival motorcycle clubs, “shows of force” at biker events and the attempted murder of a Hells Angel member, efforts to obtain protection money from illegal gambling operators, assaulting an African-American man because of his race, intimidating witnesses, the kidnapping of an undercover Knoxville, Tenn., sheriff’s deputy and trafficking prescription drugs, cocaine and marijuana. The indictment charges members from Wisconsin, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia.

Specifically, the indictment alleges that, last October, Gagner “distributed approximately 66 Oxycodone pills and 6 ‘muscle relaxers’ to an undercover agent” in Petersburg. It also charges that, the next month, Gagner, while at the Asheville Toy Run, “told the President of the Southern Patriots Motorcycle Club that if they continued to support the [Hells Angels], the Outlaws would come to town and shut the club down.” In April of this year, Gagner supposedly produced a map of Hells Angels’ clubhouses and homes at a meeting of regional leaders in Lexington.

It also alleges that Davey, along with other Outlaws, planned an assault on the Desperadoes motorcycle club at a Petersburg, Va., bar last March.

Federal agencies have targeted members of Outlaw clubs in the past on charges of racketeering, drug trafficking and violent crime. The motorcycle club has chapters in 23 states as well as overseas.

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