United States officials have now linked the Aryan Brotherhood to at least 14 homicides since 2019, marking progress in their mission to dismantle the notorious prison gang, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The latest move in the sprawling prosecution against the White Supremacist group saw federal authorities charge 20 alleged members in seven homicides and several murder conspiracies.
Feds in Sacramento reportedly uncovered a conspiracy among California inmates belonging to the Aryan Nation, involving orders to commit murder, drug sales, and the smuggling of cell phones into prisons.
U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott announced the latest charges in a newly unsealed racketeering indictment, The Easy Bay Times reported Wednesday.
Among those charged was California prisoner John Stinson, 69 — known by the nickname "Pops" — convicted in 2006 for conspiring with Aryan leaders to commit four murders and multiple attempted killings. Stinson was first locked up in 1981 for the murder of Alfredo Armijo, a Long Beach-area heroin dealer, and was later found guilty in the 1986 execution-style murder of Richard Barnes, whose son testified against the Aryan Brotherhood.
The infamous gangster, who was already serving two life sentences, faced two fresh counts of conspiracy to commit murder along with charges related to Employment Development Department fraud, per the new indictment. He was reportedly transferred from Solano State Prison in Vacaville to the Fresno County Jail to be federally detained.
Alongside Stinson, a new defendant, Andrew "Misfit" Collins, was reportedly charged with participating in one of the murder plots.
So far, the feds have allegedly linked the Aryan Brotherhood to at least 14 killings since 2019, including two double homicides in Southern California and ten prison stabbings.
In late April, a jury in Sacramento found three members of the gang guilty of "racketeering activity that included murder and drug trafficking," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California announced. The crimes committed between 2011 and 2016 were largely uncovered through wiretaps of contraband prison cellphones
Ronald Yandell, 61, was convicted on one count of murder in aid of racketeering, stemming from the killing of Hugo Pinell, as well as five counts of conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering for the killings of Kenneth Johnson, James Mickey, Paul Diaz, Michael Trippe, and Doug Maynard. Additionally, the jury found him guilty of dealing heroin and methamphetamine while behind bars in Sacramento.
Danny Troxell, 71, was convicted of racketeering activity plus conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering over Mickey's death.
Billy Sylvester, 55, was found guilty of murder in aid of racketeering for the killing of Ronald Richardson, as well as other charges including being an imprisoned heroin and meth dealer.
U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said the convictions "further our effort to dismantle a violent criminal enterprise run from inside California prisons,” explaining that the Aryan Brotherhood "controlled its members, associates, and others both inside and outside prison walls, ordering multiple murders and running a drug trafficking operation that spanned counties and states."