Friday, June 6, 2008 | 2 a.m.
The Aryan Warriors, a white supremacist gang facing federal racketeering charges in Las Vegas, have always been considered one of the state’s most violent criminal groups.
Two weeks ago, new concerns about the gang’s violent nature surfaced in FBI intelligence information circulated among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
The report, which originated in the FBI director’s office in Washington and even found its way to the White House Situation Room, warned that the Aryan Warriors were planning “unspecified major disruptions” at the upcoming racketeering trial of 14 gang members in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
Statements made by the group’s leader led authorities to worry about the “safety of prosecution team members in Nevada,” the report said.
A week after the intelligence was disseminated, federal prosecutors, citing unrelated reasons, asked U.S. District Judge Philip Pro to postpone the trial, which is set for June 16.
On Thursday, Las Vegas FBI spokesman Dave Staretz said, “The threat has been vetted, and our concern has diminished, but of course we’ll remain vigilant during this process.”
The Aryan Warriors, a product of the Nevada prison system, are considered a domestic terrorist group. As a result, the racketeering case, which includes murder charges, is being handled by Nevada’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multi-jurisdiction agency led by the FBI.
Nevada Prison Director Howard Skolnik said the federal investigation has curtailed the gang’s once-prominent activities within the prison system.
In recent years, however, the gang has taken its message of racial purity, along with its illicit operations, to the streets of Southern Nevada, giving it a broader power base, law enforcement authorities said.
Lending some credence to the latest intelligence information, authorities said, are threats the Aryan Warriors have made against prosecutors and investigators in the past. The threats have heightened security efforts at the federal courthouse and the Regional Justice Center, where some Aryan Warriors are well known to authorities.
Pro hasn’t ruled on the government’s motion to postpone the federal trial, but courthouse observers expect him to grant the motion.
Federal authorities said they plan to have tight security in place when the case does go to trial.
•••
Personal injury lawyer Ed Bernstein received a threat that attracted the attention of law enforcement early in his involvement in the massive litigation over the hepatitis outbreak.
Bernstein received an e-mail from someone using a phony name in March telling him to “watch his back” in the litigation.
The writer told Bernstein, “We will be following the events closely, and we will certainly be keeping an eye on you and your associates.”
The e-mail concluded, “It would be quite the tragedy if you or someone you cared for ... were to be diagnosed with hepatitis C, wouldn’t it?”
That sentence included Bernstein’s home address, which naturally caused him some concern.
Bernstein turned the message over to Metro Police which, with the help of subpoenaed records, traced the e-mail to an account belonging to a doctor. Police determined the e-mail originated at a computer in the physicians break room at Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center, Bernstein said.
The doctor denied creating the e-mail, and police have not filed charges in the case.
Bernstein doesn’t know whether the doctor has any connection to the clinic he’s suing for malpractice, the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.
If anything, the threat appears to have made Bernstein more determined to help his clients go after the clinic.
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