July 17, 2007
Federal authorities have indicted 14 men believed to be members of a white supremacist gang based in the Nevada prison system.
The federal racketeering indictment, which was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on July 12, 2007, charges the men with murder, extortion, drug trafficking, fraud, identity theft, gambling schemes, and other crimes both behind bars and outside of the prisons, in order to “promote white supremacy and purity of the white race by threatening, intimidating and physically harming others.”
Because the five-count indictment accuses the men of being members of a criminal racketeering organization, the Aryan Warriors racist prison gang, under the Federal RICO Act, the men each face life in prison if convicted.
The Aryan Warriors racist prison gang has been involved with violence and drug trafficking in Nevada for many years. During the late 1970s the Aryan Warriors and the Black Warriors were the two largest gangs in the Nevada State Prison and violently competed for power. Aryan Warriors activities peaked in the early 1980s until a crackdown brought them under control for a while.
The indictment charges the gang members with extorting money from inmates’ families by threatening inmates with violence if their families on the outside did not provide the money. The indictment further charges the men with stealing and using credit cards and identification documents to finance their operations, a tactic that has been used by similar gangs in California and Utah.
Federal officials allege that the Aryan Warriors manufactured and sold methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin, both inside Nevada prisons and on the streets. The indictment contends that Aryan Warriors recruit women and prison guards to work with released gang members as part of their “street program” to manufacture the drugs and smuggle them in to inmates.
According to the indictment, five of the men named are believed to be the leaders, or “Horn Holders” in the gang: Ronald "Joey/Fuzzy" Sellers, Daniel “Dano” Egan, James “Gargoyle” Wallis, Guy “B-More” Almony, all of whom are currently incarcerated; and Ronnie “RJ” Jones.
Additionally, Sellers, Egan, and Kenneth Russell Krum aka “Yum Yum,” aka “Big Pimping,” aka “Barnyard”, 37, are charged with engaging in violent crime in aid of racketeering, another federal charge which allows for a prison sentence of 20 years if convicted.
Sellers is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon as a conspirator in the 2001 stabbing death of another inmate; Egan is also charged with assault with a dangerous weapon as a conspirator in two inmate stabbings in 2004-2005. Krum is believed to be a lieutenant in the Aryan Warriors, and is charged with assault with a dangerous weapon as a conspirator in an assault in Las Vegas.
According to federal records, Sellers is already serving two life sentences without the chance of parole for first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon.
Egan was previously arrested in March, for possession of a dangerous weapon, possession of a controlled substance, carrying a concealed weapon, auto burglary, and other offenses.
Wallis, Almony, Charles “Cowboy” Axtell, Scott “Knucklehead” Sieber, Jason “J Bird” Inman, and Robert “Lil Rob” Young are already incarcerated in Nevada, while yet another, Kory “Lobes” Crossman, is currently in federal custody on unrelated charges.
Jones, Krum, Charles “Charley” Gensemer, and Tony Howard Morgan were arrested in Las Vegas, while Michael “Big Mike” Yost, was arrested in Pahrump, Nevada.
The federal investigation began in 2004 when Nevada prison officials heard allegations of witness tampering and retaliatory violence against the family of a former Aryan Warriors leader.