The FBI and federal prosecutors say they cracked a crooked biker gxxg from the inside, recruiting more than a dozen current and former members to cooperate against leaders of the Devils Diciples Motorcycle Club, according to court records.
Investigators say they are armed with wiretapped conversations, evidence seized during more than a dozen raids and controlled drug purchases from members of a gxxg that had powerful friends, including a corrupt judge and law-enforcement officers.
"The government has a staggering amount of evidence to prove these charges," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Saima Mohsin and Eric Straus wrote in a federal court filing.
The court records offer a candid peek inside an allegedly violent biker gxxg whose members are accused of committing three murders, brass-knuckle beatings and spreading fear across seven states.
The filings emerged as alleged gxxg leader and national president Jeff "Fat Dog" Smith waits in the Wayne County Jail for a hearing Thursday in federal court. Prosecutors want the Mount Clemens man jailed pending trial, contending he's a danger to the community and a flight risk.
Federal agents busted the group even though gxxg leaders had inside information about law-enforcement activities, according to court records.
In court documents urging a judge to keep Devils Diciples leaders behind bars, prosecutors said Smith and Devils Diciples national vice president Paul Darrah had a close relationship with a "corrupt Michigan state judge" and "corrupt law enforcement officers."
"It appears that Smith used these relations to engineer a plea bargain for a sentence of probation for shooting and nearly killing a former (Devils Diciples) member in 1998," prosecutors wrote.
Smith's attorney, Andrew Wise, declined comment.
The judge isn't identified by name. The News earlier reported that the FBI searched New Baltimore District Judge Paul Cassidy's home and office in 2009.
At the time, Cassidy told The News he was a boyhood friend of Smith and said agents took court records to determine if club members received special treatment during proceedings in his courtroom.
Cassidy has not been charged with any crime and did not return a phone message seeking comment. He retired shortly after news of the federal investigation became public.
"I have no comment and I do not know who the Assistant U.S. Attorney is referring to," Cassidy's attorney, Christopher Andreoff, said.
"It could be anyone. It would be pure speculation. I haven't had any contact with the government in three years."
Club rules detailed
Prosecutors shared details about the case in hopes of convincing a federal judge to keep the gang's leaders behind bars pending trial.
Smith, 58, has served as the head of Devils Diciples since the late 1980s, prosecutors said.
He either ordered or supported gxxg members when they shot and killed three people, assaulted five people and left four for dead in an Arizona desert and severely beat a disabled man with brass knuckles, prosecutors said.
The club operated under strict rules.
Only men could join. Members exclusively rode "powerful Harley Davidson" motorcycles.
Members paid monthly and yearly dues. And they kicked back money from illegal gambling and drug dealing, prosecutors said.
The money was funneled toward club expenses, bail and legal defense funds for members.
Members could quit. But not until their Devils Diciples tattoos were burned off or covered in black ink.
Women had it worse.
Wives and girlfriends served as drug mules. They supported bikers financially by working at strip clubs and bars, prosecutors said.
Women could earn a "property of" vestment signifying their relationship with a gang member.
The designation protected women from being assaulted by other members.
Otherwise, women were "fair game for sexual assault," prosecutors wrote.
In August 2008, a member's girlfriend tossed the club's colors on the ground at the Mount Clemens clubhouse.
Smith reacted to the sign of disrespect by "slapping her, grabbing, and pulling her by her hair, throwing her to the ground, climbing atop her and punching her in the face," prosecutors said.
Smith is charged alongside 40 members and associates of a gang formed in the late 1960s in California. The headquarters later moved to Mount Clemens.
The club, which intentionally misspells its name, has more than 150 members, mostly in Michigan, California, Alabama, Arizona, Indiana and Ohio.
"I would not consider them on the same level as the Hells Angels," said motorcycle gang expert Jorge Gil-Blanco, a retired California police officer. "They are not one of the seven major outlaw motorcycle gangs, but they are a major player."
The indictment and arrests will have a temporary impact on the club, Gil-Blanco said.
"You're not going to dismantle them completely. It's just like with major dope dealers," he said. "Take one out, there will be another one to fill their spot."
Drug sales alleged
Devils Diciples members make money, primarily, by selling methamphetamine, marijuana and prescription drugs, prosecutors alleged.
Devils Diciples cook their own meth and also make cash from installing slot machines in gang clubhouses and other spots, prosecutors allege.
Besides Smith, the highest-ranking gang leader indicted Friday was Darrah, the national vice president, from Macomb Township.
The 48-year-old was named to the post in 2004 and supervised the club's criminal activities, prosecutors said.
Darrah was caught on a federal wiretap in September 2008 talking about a former member nicknamed "Thumbs."
"You need to get ahold of f------ Thumbs and get our s--- back and tell him to shut his m------------ mouth before he doesn't have one to shut," Darrah allegedly said. "We're going to come out there and jerk his m------------ head right off."
If convicted of charges including racketeering conspiracy, Darrah and Smith face up to life in prison.
Club members were involved in three murders in the 1990s, prosecutors allege.
In August 1993, member William "Stumpy" Bartell shot and killed Charles Isler inside the Cadillac chapter's clubhouse, according to the indictment.
Three Devils Diciples members moved the body to another location, prosecutors allege.
Two years later, in October 1995, Grand Rapids member Larry Lee "Clyde" Morgan killed a former member from South Bend, Ind., for violating club rules.
Biker Thomas "Double T" Thacker witnessed and participated in the murder. So Morgan killed him, prosecutors allege.
After Morgan went to prison, Smith and other members provided him with financial support, "signifying that the killings were officially sanctioned by Smith" and the club, prosecutors wrote.
In April 2003, Devils Diciples members tortured five members, including a chapter president, and left four of them for dead in the Arizona desert, prosecutors alleged. The beatings were punishment for breaking club rules.
During an FBI search of Smith's house, agents found emails and documentation suggesting Smith ordered or sanctioned the beatings, prosecutors allege.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120720/METRO/207200382/Feds-paint-dark-scary-portrait-Devils-Diciples-biker-gang?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE
