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Friday, March 11, 2011

Philadelphia - 2 biker gang members go on trial in Chesco in meth ring..

OFF THE WIRE
WEST CHESTER – Two members of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Gang went on trial in Common Pleas Court here for their alleged role in a $5 million crystal methamphetamine drug trafficking ring.
Jeffrey J. “Death Row” Hampton, 37, of Berlin N.J., and Charles D. “The Panhead” Rees, 55, of Norristown, were charged in August 208 as part of a drug investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office known as “Operation Ice Breaker.”
In the months since, dozens of the 40 suspected drug dealers arrested in the operation have pleaded guilty before Judge Howard F. Riley Jr., and are either awaiting sentencing or have been sentenced. But Hampton and Rees, who is acting president of the Outlaws, have steadfastly maintained their innocence.
On Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Andrew Rongaus, in his opening statement to the jury of seven men and five women hearing the case, urged them to use their common sense in fitting the testimony they will hear over the next week to fit the behavior of the two men with the actions of a drug ring.
Rongaus said that much of the evidence in the case would be recordings of wire tapped phone conversations between Hampton and a Philadelphia meth dealer named William Lees. Timothy J. Deery, the state Bureau of Narcotics Investigation agent who led the investigation into the massive drug ring, which saw drugs shipped from Latin America to Philadelphia, would lead them through the maze of drug jargon they would hear, he said.
“This case is not one of your typical drug cases,” where a police informant would testify about buying drugs from a dealer. Instead, the jury would hear testimony that Rongaus said were conversations about shipments of meth, cocaine and marijuana coming in, an those drugs being picked up.
The conversations were disguised so as not to refer directly to drugs, Rongaus said. “It is not clear (what they are speaking about) because drug dealers are smart, and they know that if they get caught they are in trouble,” he said.
He said that Lees, who has pleaded guilty to six counts of drug dealing, would testify about his business relationship with Hampton. And Hampton and Rees connection with the Outlaws would become important, Rongaus said, because “drug business and club business are combined and intermingled.” He said a probationary member of the club, Christopher Custer, would testify about drug transactions he saw in the clubhouse.
When the arrests in the case were announced in August 208, then-Attorney General Thomas Corbett, now governor, heralded the busts. "We have not only taken down the main meth dealers in the region, but we have also arrested the leaders and key members of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Gang," he said.
According to defense attorney James Freeman of Phoenixville, representing Rees, that is what tied his client to the drug transactions – the fact that he was acting president of the club, which Freeman noted was a “duly authorized, non-profit entity licensed by the state” and the “glamour” that the inclusion of the Outlaws would bring to he investigation.
Rees, who owns an auto repair shop in Norristown, had no connection to lees, and was never caught with any drugs. His voice was never captured talking about drugs in code on any of the wiretaps Freeman told the jury in his opening. “They don’t even know each other,” he said.
“He is here because he is acting president of the Outlaws. That’s why he’s here,” Freeman said. “They have no drugs.”
Freeman, along with defense attorney Michael Farrell of Philadelphia, representing Hampton, called into question the credibility of Lees and Custer, noting that they were both hoping for reduced sentences for their admitted drug dealing because of their cooperation.
Farrell contended that the evidence the prosecution has against his client is circumstantial, and was based on the incorrect assumption that Hampton was a supplier to Lees, rather than a customer.
“I ask you to call a spade a spade, and see that (Hampton) is a drug abuser, not a drug dealer,” Farrell said to the jury.
According to authorities at the time of the arrests, Lees was supplied with approximately two to four pounds of crystal methamphetamine per month. He had about 55 individuals in his distribution network, who he supplied with multi-ounce to multi-gram quantities of crystal methamphetamine.
From September 2008 to March 2009, Lees allegedly distributed approximately 28 pounds of crystal methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $2.5 million. The meth was eventually redistributed throughout Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties, as well as in Camden and Burlington counties in New Jersey. As the investigation progressed, agents learned that Lees was distributing crystal methamphetamine to several members of the Outlaws, including Hampton. The meth was then redistributed among gang members in southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In addition to crystal methamphetamine, Hampton and other members of the Outlaws allegedly also distributed more than $200,000 worth of crack cocaine.
The grand jury found that Rees routinely gave Hampton and other members of the gang orders directing the criminal activities of the Outlaws.
The trial is expected to last into next week.
http://delcotimes.com/articles/2011/03/08/news/doc4d7678be3627d458143102.txt?viewmode=fullstory