The Sanford resident was arrested in a national crackdown on the Outlaws motorcycle club.

OFF THE WIRE
By Trevor Maxwell tmaxwell@mainetoday.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Staff Writer

All three Mainers arrested earlier this year as part of a nationwide crackdown on the Outlaws motorcycle club have pleaded guilty and await sentencing on racketeering charges.

Thomas Benvie, 41, of Sanford entered his plea Friday at federal court in Richmond, Va., where he and 26 other alleged members of the Outlaws were indicted in June. At the time Benvie was the president of the Maine chapter of the club.

Benvie, Joseph Allman of Hollis and Michael Pedini of Madison each face up to 20 years in prison.

A fourth Maine resident named in the indictment, Thomas Mayne of Old Orchard Beach, was killed in a shootout with federal agents on June 15. The shootout happened as agents were carrying out raids in 10 states.

The charges against the Outlaws were the result of a two-year undercover investigation of the motorcycle club by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The 50-page indictment describes the Outlaws as a highly organized criminal enterprise that uses a chain of command to commit crimes ranging from illegal gambling to drug trafficking to murder.

One of the crimes referenced in the indictment was the attempted murder of a rival motorcycle club member in central Maine on Oct. 8, 2009.

At his sentencing hearing last month, Pedini admitted that he and Mayne shot and seriously injured a Hells Angels member outside one of that group's clubhouses in the Somerset County town of Canaan. The shooting was payback for an assault and robbery by the Hells Angels against two Outlaws outside a gas station in Connecticut.

According to court documents, Pedini and Benvie received orders to retaliate against the Hells Angels directly from the Outlaws national president, Jack "Milwaukee Jack" Rosga. After the shooting in Canaan, Pedini and Mayne received new patches indicating they had committed a violent act on behalf of the gang.

Allman, a former president and enforcer of the Maine Outlaws, said at the time that members of the group were "taking care of business," the indictment says.

Another crime documented in the indictment was an attack against the Diablos, considered by law enforcement to be a support club of the Hells Angels.

On June 22, 2005, Allman and other Outlaws members used their vehicle to strike a Diablos member who was riding his motorcycle near Ossipee, N.H. According to court documents, the Outlaws took the man's Diablos jacket as he was lying unconscious on the road.

Allman later described the incident to an undercover agent who had infiltrated the Outlaws.

Pedini is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 10; Allman on Dec. 17; and Benvie on Jan. 14.

Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at: tmaxwell@pressherald.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it