Feds: Biker gang plotted to extort, kill rivals
HARLESTON, W.Va. – National Pagans Motorcycle Club (PMC) leaders and more than 50 members and associates of the outlaw biker gang are accused of plotting to extort and kill rivals to consolidate the club’s power in the eastern U.S., according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The defendants include national Pagans President David Keith “Bart” Barbeito of Myersville, Md., and national Vice President Floyd B. “Jesse” Moore of St. Albans. Also named are members and associates in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Florida.
The 44-count indictment portrays Barbeito and Moore as leaders of a sprawling organization engaged in kidnapping, robbery, extortion, conspiracy to commit murder and other crimes in an effort to be the pre-eminent biker gang in the region, said Charles Miller, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia.
Many of the charges detail violent efforts to intimidate and extort smaller biker gangs and clubs, and illegal gambling centered on raffles for nonexistent motorcycles. Other crimes listed in the 83-page document include drug dealing and weapons violations.
“The PMC and its existing support clubs unlawfully threatened and intimidated people who wanted to start a motorcycle club in the PMC territory,” the indictment says.
Two of the most serious charges involve murder conspiracies. Moore and others are accused of conspiring in September 2005 with a prison guard to kill an inmate suspected of cooperating with law enforcement.
Moore also is accused of conspiring with the president of a local chapter of the Avengers Motorcycle Club to commit murder. Neither target was actually killed, Miller said.
The indictment further accuses Moore of ordering two Pagans known as Darrell “Mr. Nice Guy” Bumgarner and David “Kicker” Cremeans to beat a member of the Road Disciples Motorcycle Club at a Huntington bar in March 2003. Prosecutors say the men were to collect money from the rival club’s president and order him to obey the Pagans or be shut down.
Court records did not indicate whether Bumgarner or Cremeans, who are in custody, have lawyers. A federal magistrate spent much of Tuesday determining whether the defendants qualified for legal assistance and ordering most held until hearings next week.