Sixty-eight alleged white supremacists from California have been charged with drug trafficking, weapons violations and COVID-19 loan fraud, according to a federal indictment.
A 76-count federal grand jury indictment charged members of the San Fernando Valley Peckerwoods, a California-based white supremacist street gang. Seal opened on WednesdayAttorney General Merrick B. Garland said, his years-old criminal enterprise had been dealt a “decisive blow.”
Garland claimed the club was responsible for “trafficking deadly fentanyl and other drugs, committing robberies, and committing financial fraud to finance both his criminal enterprise and the Aryan Brotherhood.”
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Gang members allegedly committed the murders through identity-theft schemes and financial fraud, including fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program funds – intended to aid small businesses affected by the pandemic – that led to closures.
According to the indictment, his criminal activities went back to at least December 2016.
During the investigation, law enforcement officers seized illegal firearms and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin, court filings state.
The Peckerwoods sometimes take orders from California’s main prison-based white supremacist gang, the Aryan Brotherhood, and also have an alliance with the Mexican Mafia prison gang that controls most of the Latino street gangs in the Golden State, the indictment alleges.
They used social media to share information and target people who violated the group’s rules.
If convicted, the defendants could face life in prison.
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