Alameda News - Local Alameda County News

Incarcerated CA prison gang affiliates ran multi-state drug ring from their cells, according to federal prosecutors

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 10:21:45 +0000

SOLEDAD — Last March 27, two California Highway Patrol officers pulled over a vehicle on its way north from Anaheim, knowing full well what it contained: five pounds of methamphetamine and two confidential informants working for the ATF, whom authorities say had just picked up the drugs on the orders of an incarcerated associates of two notorious prison gangs.

The traffic stop was just a ruse, orchestrated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to get the main targets of their investigation talking. Two weeks later, a gang task force with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation searched the North Kern State Prison cell of Robert “Rage” Eversole, 47, an alleged associate of the Aryan Brotherhood, a so-called white power gang that also goes by “The Brand.”

What agents found, according to a recently unsealed complaint naming Eversole and 18 others as federal defendants on drug and gun trafficking charges, were conversations between Eversole and Angel “Rascal” Lopez, a validated Mexican Mafia associate incarcerated 150 miles northwest at Salinas Valley State Prison.

“Was it stashed good?” Lopez allegedly asked Eversole, who’d just sent him a screenshot of the car being pulled over, sent to him by one of the couriers.

“Don’t know bro,” Eversole responded, according to the complaint. “They literally just left picking it up.”

“They look like highway patrol,” Lopez allegedly wrote back.

Later, Eversole allegedly provided Lopez an update that the drugs were gone but their couriers were out of custody.

“Because of covid 19 (sic)…let them go,” he allegedly wrote Lopez.

“Five pounds? No nothing?” Lopez asked, apparently suspicious.

“Said two plains rolled up,” Eversole allegedly replied, referencing plain-clothed officers. “Picked up the dope. Rolled out.”

The conversations between Lopez and Eversole were submitted in a 140-page criminal complaint, unsealed last week, which federal prosecutors say is evidence of California prison gangs being able to run huge drug rings from the inside, with the use of contraband cell phones that are making their ways into prison by the hundreds. Besides Lopez and Eversole, prosecutors charged Todd “Fox” Morgan, an alleged Aryan Brotherhood member, and Kenneth Bash, an alleged associate, with coordinating drug and gun sales, as well as attempts to smuggle contraband into Salinas Valley State Prison.

The case was unsealed last week, as federal and state authorities announced the charges were part of “Operation Lucky Charms,” an investigation into the Aryan Brotherhood and the Fresnecks street gang, a Fresno-based gang authorities describe as being under the wing of the Aryan Brotherhood. It is the second time in two years federal prosecutors have built a case thanks to evidence collected from wiretapping contraband cellphones of incarcerated Aryan Brotherhood members.

The charges cover a seven-month period beginning last March and ending in early November. Included in the complaint are allegations that Morgan, Bash, Stephanie Madsen — described by prosecutors as Bash’s “secretary” — and David Zachocki, along with an uncharged co-conspirator, talked about killing a man who was believed to be a child molester.

Bash is accused of helping coordinate shipments of drugs across state lines, including a small package mailed to Alaska and a 12-pound shipment of meth to Montana, allegedly telling a co-defendant to “get that door panel ready” of the rental car they were using, in anticipation of the multi-state drive. A few days later, troopers Cedar City, Utah pulled over the rental and located 12 pounds of meth hidden in the door panels, according to the complaint.

In another instance, a confidential ATF informant arranged for an undercover agent to buy guns and ammo from one of the defendants. Afterwards, Bash allegedly scolded the confidential informant for being sloppy.

“Everything about that was hinky as f—,” Bash allegedly texted the informant. “Tell your guy that was the last one…He should not have been there.”

“If you were introduced to this guy and he’s a cop, he just met my people,” Bash allegedly added later in the conversation, referring to the person who was, in fact, an undercover agent.

Incarcerated CA prison gang affiliates ran multi-state drug ring from their cells, according to federal prosecutors

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 10:21:43 +0000