TEXAS - Bar owner wanted to use business as Bandidos headquarters......

OFF THE WIRE
 gosanangelo.com
By Matthew Waller
SAN ANGELO, Texas — The odds weren't that great for the creation of a biker bar called Throttle Down.
The Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission was against it. The San Angelo Police Department was against it. The city of San Angelo was against it. And the Tom Green County Sheriff's Office was against it.
They didn't like that the owner of the bar, Alex Suarez, wanted to set the bar up so that members of his motorcycle club could use it as a headquarters in San Angelo.
In other words, it was going to be a central place for the Bandidos, a motorcycle gxxg classified as being involved in organized crime by the FBI.
That's why the TABC got a protest started against the proposed bar's alcohol license application, and it was subsequently backed by all the police, sheriff and city.
The protest was upheld and the license was denied by Tom Green County Judge Mike Brown in a hearing on Tuesday.
Police Chief Tim Vasquez said Suarez, who could not be reached for comment, testified that he wanted to set up the bar for the Bandidos, but he didn't seem to think that they were criminal, merely that they were associated with independent criminals.
"The whole basis for his argument was just because his brothers in the club are involved in criminal activity, it doesn't mean he will be," Police Chief Tim Vasquez said.
The FBI doesn't think the club is so benign.
According to the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, the Bandidos have ties to Mexican drug trafficking organizations, has contact with incarcerated members and has military-trained members.
The gxxg is classified as "one percenters," which are "any group of motorcyclists who have voluntarily made a commitment to band together to abide by their organization's rules enforced by violence and who engage in activities that bring them and their club into repeated and serious conflict with society and the law," the FBI assessment states.
It estimates that there are about 300 such motorcycle gxxgs in the United States.
According to the Bandidos website, it is an international organization with chapters in more than a dozen countries, from Denmark to Australia. Its logo is a cartoon man in a sombrero with gun and machete, and its members' jackets have a "1%" tag on them.
After infiltrating the gxxg by setting up a motorcycle repair shop, the FBI conducted a major drug bust in September. Seventeen members were charged with distributing heroine.
"Gxxgs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions and up to 90 percent in several others," the FBI assessment states.
Gxxgs frequently use businesses for criminal activities, El Paso Police Department Detective Roger Chairez, a West Region director for the Texas Gang Investigators Association, said.
They can get "a business set up and they can launder through the business," Chairez said. "They can use it for what they call a store and sell narcotics. They'll usually extort the owners. They'll strong-arm them into letting them use their business."
San Angelo's case was different, with someone setting up a business for the purpose of supporting the gxxg from the start.
"We don't try to get in the way of businesses and new businesses, but we're definitely going to try to get in the way of criminal activity," Vasquez said.
Tom Green County sheriff candidates have said gxxg-related crime is definitely a problem in Tom Green County.
The trick to fighting them is education and cooperation, Chairez said.
"The first thing is to educate the public and get the word out," he said. "Sharing information among agencies is a must."
Warning about a possible gxxg-base in San Angelo, as the TABC seems to have done, could be part of such education.
http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2012/mar/17/bar-owner-wanted-to-use-business-as-bandidos/