SAN ANTONIO (AP) — National leaders of the Bandidos biker gang have been indicted on charges accusing them of racketeering and waging a deadly “war” on the rival Cossacks gang.
The indictment was announced Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio.
The accusations focus on a rivalry that came under renewed attention in May, when a meeting of biker groups at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco ended in gunfire that left nine people dead.
The indictment accuses John Portillo, the Bandidos’ national vice president, of using dues and donations to pay legal expenses of its members days after the Waco shooting.
Portillo, national president Jeffrey Pike and national sergeant-at-arms Justin Cole Forster are charged with racketeering, drug distribution and other crimes. The indictment also says they sanctioned killings.
A Bandidos representative couldn’t immediately be reached.