A federal grand jury on Thursday charged three members of the Modesto Hells Angels Motorcycle Club on various drug trafficking and distribution charges, giving yet another blow to the club after an inquiry earlier this year led to the club’s president being arrested.
The announcement was made in a Friday afternoon press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
Michael Shafer, 31-year-old second in command, Patrick Gonzales, the club’s 31-year-old secretary, and Hells Angels member Ricky Blackwell are accused in four separate charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed.
Shafer is accused of conspiring to sell marijuana, conspiring to sell heroin and also conspiring to sell marijuana, along with two other accusations of using a communication facility to host a drug trafficking. Gonzales is indicted of being a felon in possession of a gun and ammunition.
Blackwell is charged with keeping hold cocaine with conspiracy to distribute the drug, possessing a gun while trafficking drugs and possessing a gun after being convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence.
The federal prosecutors have revealed that investigators issued search warrants at the houses of Shafer and Gonzales, also along with numerous other locations.
The investigators have discovered at the Gonzales’ home the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club World Rules, prosecutors said, the rule book that governs all Hells Angels Motorcycle Clubs.
The news release said that the investigators have also discovered the rules for the Modesto charter of the Hells Angels, club meeting minutes, membership information and membership agreements.
A couple of earlier, the Modesto club’s president Randy Picchi, his wife Tina Picchi, Michael Mize, and Michael Pack, a prospect with the club, were found guilty after the investigators served search warrants at 7 locations in the Stanislaus County, including the Hells Angels clubhouse on the 7th Street in downtown Modesto.
