LOS ANGELES — Federal prosecutors announced they have indicted 68 alleged members and affiliates of a white supremacist gang in Los Angeles County who allegedly distributed drugs and committed robberies to support their operation.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 12 alleged Peckerwood members have been charged with racketeering. The remaining 56 defendants were charged with conspiring to distribute drugs.
The Peckerwoods allegedly committed multiple crimes, including identity theft, unemployment fraud, insurance fraud, and bank fraud in the San Fernando Valley, located just north of Los Angeles, with the approval of members of the Aryan Brotherhood serving time in prison, prosecutors said.
Authorities named the federal probe into the gang’s alleged crimes “Operation Hate One Eight” — the area code for the valley area of of Los Angeles county is “818.”
The indictment also alleges the group frequently shared violent and racist messages on private message platforms and social media. Amid the nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd in 2020, one of the group’s members wrote on a Facebook group:
“I wish all the blacks and all the cops would just kill ALL of each other. Our side of the dayroom only! If thats all that was left in the world, that would be awesome.”
While the Peckerwoods were spreading racist ideology, the group was selling dangerous narcotics, including fentanyl, heroine, and methamphetamine, according to prosecutors.
“The Peckerwoods’ violent white-supremacist ideology and wide-ranging criminal activity pose a grave menace to our community,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “By allegedly engaging in everything from drug-trafficking to firearms offenses to identity theft to COVID fraud, and through their alliance with a neo-Nazi prison gang, the Peckerwoods are a destructive force. In prosecuting the members of the Peckerwoods criminal organization, our office is carrying out its mission to protect the public from the most dangerous threats.”
The FBI, DEA, and additional law enforcement agencies set up processing center in Downtown Los Angeles where the apprehended suspects were taken in custody.
Authorities said investigators are still searching for 26 people who were allegedly involved with the Peckerwoods, KTLA reported.
If convicted, all of the alleged gang members who were indicted will receive a statutory, maximum sentence of life in prison.
More on the arrests and indictments of the Peckerwoods gang members.
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