Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra is scheduled to
sentence John Xavier Portillo, the national vice president of the Bandidos, at
a morning hearing. Portillo, 58, served as second in command for national
president Jeffrey Fay Pike, 62, of Conroe, who led the club for more than a
decade.
Vest showing the Bandidos Motorcycle Club back patch
Both were convicted after a three-month federal trial in San
Antonio of ordering and sanctioning a racketeering conspiracy that aimed at
keeping the biker club's stronghold on its home turf of Texas. The trial showed
that the Bandidos, once the second-largest biker gang in the world behind the
Hell’s Angels, split off from its international chapters in Europe and
Australia because of turmoil in the ranks.
By the time Pike became president in 2005, law officers
estimated the Bandidos had 5,000 members in 210 chapters, located in 22
countries. But by 2016 — six years after Pike first sought to break away from
most of the international chapters — the Bandidos had dropped to 100-plus
chapters and more than 1,000 members mostly in the United States and parts of
Latin America.
Despite its smaller numbers, the Bandidos still exerted
clout. Texas’ deadliest biker shootout occurred while Portillo and Pike were at
the helm. Neither Pike nor Portillo were at the May 17, 2015, shootout at Twin Peaks
restaurant in Waco that involved other Bandidos, members of the Cossacks
Motorcycle Club, some of their support clubs, and police. That incident
resulted in nine bikers being killed, 20 injured and nearly 200 being arrested
on state charges of engaging in organized crime in prosecutions that have yet
to result in any convictions.
None of the charges against Pike and Portillo were for the
Twin Peaks shootout, and during the federal trial, the two Bandidos leaders
challenged the government’s contention that they were the bosses of what the
feds called “the mafia on two wheels.” The pair denied ordering, authorizing or
sanctioning the criminal activity of their fellow Bandidos, and Pike claimed
local Bandidos chapters were autonomous and didn’t act on orders of national
leaders. But federal witnesses that included ex-Bandidos and wiretaps
of Portillo’s phone, along with body-wire recordings worn by cooperating
witnesses, helped sway jurors to agree with prosecutors.
The federal jury convicted Pike and Portillo of conspiracy
to murder and assault of members and associates of the Cossacks. Government
witnesses testified that Portillo, with Pike’s approval, declared in 2013 or
2014 — before the Waco incident — that the Bandidos were “at war” with the Cossacks.
According to that testimony, a number of violent acts — before and after the
Waco gunfight — were committed by Bandidos around Texas in furtherance of this
“war,” including in Fort Worth, Gordon, Odessa, Port Aransas and Crystal City.
Among the murders the jury heard about were that of Geoffrey
Brady, a supporter of the Cossacks shot by Bandidos members in December 2014 at
a Fort Worth bar; street gang member Robert Lara, who was shot by Bandidos in
Atascosa County on Jan. 31, 2002; and Anthony Benesh, a purported Hell’s Angels
member who was shot outside an Austin restaurant by other Bandidos on March 18,
2006.
John Xavier Portillo, former National Vice President of the Bandidos MC
The clashes cited in the federal trial were over the
Cossacks wearing patches on their biker vests that said “Texas,” which is
considered the territory, and home base, of the Bandidos. Defense evidence
showed Pike, at one point, had approved of Cossacks wearing the Texas “bottom
rocker,” or patch, but at least one government witness testified that relations
soured: Some Bandidos were angry that permission was granted for Cossacks to
wear the patch, and because the Cossacks’ Texas patch was larger than the one
Bandidos wear.
Pike was national president of the Bandidos from mid-2005
until he stepped down in January 2016 after his arrest. Pike picked Portillo as
his national vice president in 2013. Portillo had been in that position until
he was arrested, also in January 2016. Pike is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Ezra on
Wednesday, and also faces life in prison. Both men are appealing.
News Article written by: Guillermo Contreras
NEWS SOURCE: My San Antonio
