Full Hells Angels Chapter Was Arrested in California in a Case of Kidnapping and Assault, According to Cops
On Tuesday, the Bakersfield, California, chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was arrested as part of a probe into kidnapping, robbery, and attack.
Police in Kern County, California, said that the people they arrested were five active members of the Bakersfield chapter of the club and two members of Sons of Hell, a biker club that works with the Bakersfield chapter of Hells Angels.
According to a statement made by the police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives together, they found 25 guns, an unknown number of rounds of ammunition, and gang gear.
Police from the ATF, the sheriff’s office, and the California Highway Patrol worked together to make the arrests on Tuesday morning. The agencies said the probe is still going on.
One of the seven suspects, 37-year-old John Vaughn, was already in jail on “other charges,” the statement said. Everyone who has been caught so far is said to be from Bakersfield.
Aside from John Seeger, 57, Ricardo Alvarez, 42, Armando Villasenor, 55, Joseph Soto Sr., 57, Joseph Soto Jr., 33, Joshua Zavala, 31, and Joseph Soto Sr., 57, were also taken.
The statement says that Vaughn and Seeger are of the Sons of Hell group and that the others are of the Bakersfield chapter of the Hells Angels.
No charges have been made against them.
In the statement, police said that the people who were arrested were charged with kidnapping, robbery, making criminal threats, false imprisonment, assault with a firearm, membership in a criminal street gang, criminal plot, intimidating a witness or victim, and elder abuse.
It wasn’t clear if the study was about a single event or a string of events. Kern County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lori Meza said that specifics can’t be given out yet because the investigation is still going on.
It’s not clear if the suspects have hired lawyers. When asked for a comment, the Kern County public defender’s office did not reply right away.
The U.S. Justice Department calls the Hells Angels, which was formed in Fontana, California, in the years after World War II, an illegal biker gang and business.
In 1969, members attacked concertgoers in Altamont, California. They also had a love-hate relationship with the late author Hunter S. Thompson and fought violently with members of the rival Mongols in Laughlin, Nevada, in 2002.
The federal government says the gang has been trading drugs and guns for a long time.