Former LV Hells Angels chapter president pleads guilty in 2008 cocaine sting

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Monday, June 3, 2013 | 4:05 p.m.

Providing security during a 2008 cocaine buy at a Las Vegas hotel room netted a $3,000 payment for a Hells Angels officer. It also will bring him 46 months in federal prison.

Unbeknownst to Paul Seifert, 46, former president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, he was providing security for an undercover agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarroon Thursday sentenced Seifert to the prison term followed by five years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess 10 kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute. Navarro is permitting Seifert to self-report to federal prison by Aug. 28.

Seifert and two others, Keith Hare, 43, and Miguel Macias, 33, were charged in November 2011.

According to Daniel Bogden, U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada, on May 2, 2008, Macias and Seifert, then members of the Hells Angels, met with an undercover ATF agent and agreed to provide security during a cocaine purchase. Macias and Seifert indicated they had experience providing security for similar transactions. Six days later, Seifert, Hare, and Macias met the undercover ATF agent at a hotel room in Las Vegas. Other undercover federal and local officers posed as sellers for 10 kilograms of cocaine. The undercover ATF agent purchased the cocaine, and the defendants were paid $3,000 for their “work.”

Hare also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute and is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 14. Macias pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute and conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. He was sentenced last year to 70 months in prison.

ATF and Metro Police investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Duncan.