FLORIDA -Clubhouse for motorcycle gang raided for meth

OFF THE WIRE
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- “I was freaking out,” Carol Barton explained.

When Barton came home from dropping her daughter off at school her rural street was filled with police.

Police wouldn’t allow her into her house. So Barton watched from across the street as police searched the house next door.

"When I was sitting over there I heard a big boom and I guess it was them going into the big house,” Barton said.

As a helicopter circled overhead, police car after police car filed in to the intersection of Holland Street and Southside Boulevard Service Road.

The only thing the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office would confirm is that they were serving a federal search warrant to a property on Holland Street, a property better known as the clubhouse for the Jacksonville chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.

According to CrimeUSA.com, the Outlaws Motorcycle Club has thousands of members in more than 175 chapters nationwide. Its members refer to themselves as “One Percenters” because they fall outside of the 99 percent of bikers who are law-abiding. Recently, dozens of their members were arrested for the production and distribution of meth, cocaine, and marijuana. They’ve been known to violently compete with other biker groups, like the Hell’s Angels.

"As far as I know, they're law abiding citizens and going about living their life,” said attorney Michael Yokan.

Yokan is the attorney for the two listed property owners, Richard Leavitt and Robart Ebersole. Once police cleared the scene, a bright orange sign reading “Condemned” hung from their fence.

Yokan confirmed to Action News at least one DEA agent and several JSO officers searched the property Tuesday morning and found traces of methamphetamine.

“Nam ely a few baggies of residue or alleged residue of methamphetamine,” Yokan said.

Yokan said police did arrest a man who is not one of his clients, named Anthony Padgett.

The raid was one of four DEA raids in Northeast Florida on Tuesday.

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