NEW JERSEY:Pagans bikers discussed plot to kill Hell's Angels during Wildwood's Roar to the Shore

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http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/top_three/article_78e543d2-c1a7-11df-86a7-001cc4c03286.html Pagans bikers discussed plot to kill Hell's Angels during Wildwood's Roar to the Shore
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Story Discussion By TRUDI GILFILLIAN, Press staff writer | Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010
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Motorcycles ride into the Wildwood Convention Center parking lot during the Roar to the Shore motorcycle rally in Wildwood on Saturday , September 11. (The Press of Atlantic City/Anthony Smedile)
Photo by: Anthony Smedile
Members of the Pagans outlaw motorcycle club planned to kill members of the rival Hell's Angels gang and discussed their plot during a visit to Wildwood's annual Roar to the Shore motorcycle rally last week, federal officials said.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, released two federal indictments charging 17 alleged members and associates of the Long Island, upstate New York and New Jersey chapters of the Pagans with conspiracy to murder and assaults in aid of racketeering. The charges follow a 21-month-long undercover investigation by agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The indictment states that Jason "Roadblock" Blair, the current Long Island chapter president, was assaulted by a group from the Hell's Angels on Aug. 25, 2009, and that he later called on the chapter's former president, John Richard "JR" Ebeling, to help plot his revenge.
In a bail letter sent to two federal court judges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said that soon after, on Aug. 28 and 29, 2009, an undercover agent recorded a meeting held at a Rocky Point, N.Y., tattoo shop used at that time as the gang's base of operations. Ebeling and Blair, along with several other named defendants, were at that meeting and were recorded "discussing specific plans to kill individuals who were involved in Blair's assault. Although Ebeling cautioned that the Pagans were outnumbered at present and must be "smart" about attacking, he promised that "the hammer's still going to drop on them."
The group reportedly planned to throw homemade grenades, referred to by some of the group as "Christmas presents," to launch their attack as they rode their motorcycles through Long Island.
The grenades, an ATF forensic analysis showed, contained commercial-grade explosives in a canister that was about the size of a soda can, surrounded by steel rods that would have acted as shrapnel if detonated.
The same bail letter stated that, "Over the weekend of September 11, 2010, during a national Pagans gathering in Wildwood, New Jersey, Blair announced to chapter members that the Long Island chapter had been directed by the Mother Club to, in sum and substance, ‘take care of business' immediately as to the Hell's Angels and its associates. Blair added that the members present should be prepared to go to jail or be killed over the next several days or weeks as they made the object of the conspiracy operational."
The 31-count indictment against Blair, Ebeling and other members, however, was returned by a grand jury on Sept. 9, prior to that Wildwood discussion, and not unsealed until Sept. 15, after the event.
Wildwood Police Lt. Terry Oslar said Thursday that the Pagans, along with other motorcycle gangs such as the Mongols, the Wheels of Soul, the Breed and the Tribe, attended this year's Roar to the Shore, but the weekend produced few incidents.
He said there were reports of fights on a few occasions, but when police arrived, the fights were over. There also was a report of one stolen bike, he said.
"We really didn't have any problems. There were more people at this one. There were more of the outlaw motorcycle gangs at this one, but we had as many or fewer incidents than usual," Oslar said.
The Pagans, the largest of the gangs in town for Roar to the Shore, stayed at several motels, primarily the Binns Motor Inn on Atlantic Avenue, Oslar said.
Don Cabrera, a Wildwood Crest borough commissioner and owner of Cabrera Property Management, said his company manages the Binns and had no problems with the Pagans during their stay.
"Traditionally they've rented the Binns and Bonito Motel. From what we know, we experienced no problems whatsoever," Cabrera said, adding the Pagans left the motel in the condition they found it.
About 75 rooms in the Binns and Bonito were rented to Pagans, he said.
"It is biker weekend, and we want people to have fun, but we don't want to tarnish the image of the Wildwoods," Cabrera said.
Blair and Ebeling are being held without bail.