Friday, Dec. 5, 2003 | 11:28 a.m.
Three of the 42 alleged Hells Angels members indicted in Las Vegas in connection with the killing of three people at the Laughlin River Run in April 2002 also have been indicted on separate charges in Arizona.
Arizona residents, Calvin Schaefer, 34, Donald Smith, 53, and George Walters, 47, were charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering in Arizona, in an indictment unsealed Thursday afternoon.
All three are alleged to have been involved in a gunbattle in the casino of the Laughlin Harrah's, and were arrested by authorities on Wednesday during daylong raids of Hells Angels clubhouses in five Western States.
"The ATF and the law enforcement community throughout Arizona have drawn a line in the sand," said Virginia O'Brien, special agent in charge of the Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "We will not tolerate outlaw motorcycle gang violence in our communities."
Schaefer, Smith, Walters and the 39 other defendants indicted in Las Vegas were charged with attacking members of the Mongols motorcycle gang in the casino bar area to support an alleged racketeering enterprise that included drug and gun trafficking, extortion, murder, attempted murder and other crimes.
The two-year undercover investigation by the ATF and authorities in Nevada, Arizona, California, Washington and Alaska resulted in 16 Hells Angels members being indicted in Arizona. All 16, including Schaefer, Smith and Walters, are in custody, federal officials said.
Of the 42 indicted in Nevada 33 have been arrested, and warrants are still outstanding for nine others. Officials originally thought that 34 had been arrested Thursday morning, but it was later verified that only 33 were in custody.
Among the nine outstanding defendants in the case is one Las Vegas man, 55-year-old Patrick Kalabolas. Seven of the others who have not been arrested are residents of California, and one man lives in Germany, federal officials said.
Schaefer could also be a defendant in the local murder case stemming from the deadly River Run brawl in Laughlin. Metro Police forwarded that case to the Clark County District Attorney, and Schaefer was among about 10 possible defendants investigated by Metro in that case.
Clark County District Attorney David Roger would not comment on the possibility that Schaefer or any of the others facing federal charges would be indicted locally, but did say he hopes to have indictments returned in the case after the first of the year.
archive
