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Wed
12
Jun
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RI Hells Angel's president arrested in Providence on felony assault charge

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Wed, 06/12/2019 - 8:30pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — The president of the Rhode Island chapter of the Hells Angel’s was arrested on felony assault charges in Providence on Wednesday, according to authorities.

Rhode Island State Police said 28-year-old Joseph M. Lancia, 28, of Greenville, was arrested as part of an investigation into reports of shots being fired near the Hells Angels Motorcycle Clubhouse located on Messer Street in Providence.

Authorities converged outside the motorcycle club, where Lancia was taken into custody without incident.

State police said a search warrant was later executed at the clubhouse.

Lancia was taken to state police headquarters, where he was processed and held.

He is scheduled for arraignment at Sixth Division District Court in Providence on Thursday.

State police said the investigation is ongoing investigation, adding that more charges might be pending.

Tue
14
May
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North Providence Hell’s Angels member pleads guilty to drug, gun charges

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Tue, 05/14/2019 - 9:32pm

A member of the Hell’s Angels Rhode Island chapter is facing between five and 40 years behind bars after he pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to charges of trafficking methamphetamine and cocaine and being a felon in possession of a gun, according to authorities.

Douglas Leedham, a 54-year-old “full patch” member of the motorcycle club from the town of North Providence, was arrested in February after investigators searched his home, which yielded just under 40 grams of methamphetamine, 19 grams of cocaine, two guns, a 12 gauge shotgun, two body armor vests, 35 knives, four hatchets, a handful of batons, a set of brass knuckles, more than $6,4000 in cash, according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office in Rhode Island.

 

Officials also found “assorted items used in the packaging and distribution of drugs,” the statement said.

Sat
09
Feb
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FBI: Hells Angels member had cache of weapons inside home

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Sat, 02/09/2019 - 1:30pm

An alleged member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was ordered held without bail Friday afternoon one day after FBI agents seized a cache of weapons and drugs from his North Providence home.

VIDEO

Fri
08
Feb
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Hells Angels member from North Providence held without bail on drug, firearms charges

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Fri, 02/08/2019 - 4:03pm

PROVIDENCE — A “full patch” member of the Rhode Island Hells Angels motorcycle gang who was charged with gun and drug offenses after a search of his North Providence home was been ordered held without bail on Friday afternoon.

Douglas Leedham, 54, is charged in Rhode Island federal court with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, and three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Lincoln Almond ordered him held without bail because of the seriousness of the charges, some of which carry mandatory minimum sentences of five years.

Federal authorities searched Leedham’s residence at 1117 Douglas Ave., unit 12, on Thursday.

Thu
07
Feb
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FBI responds to North Providence complex in 'ongoing investigation'

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Thu, 02/07/2019 - 5:54pm

Local and federal law enforcement officers descended on a complex in North Providence on Thursday.

Several town police cruisers were seen leaving the Geneva Mills complex at about noon. The FBI was also there.

"The FBI is conducting court authorized activity in connection with an ongoing investigation," an FBI spokeswoman told NBC 10 News.

NBC 10 News later learned that the complex, which is located at 1119 Douglas Ave., is owned by Immortal Land Development, LLC.

However, Steven Lancia is the manager and owner. Lancia is a full patch member of the Hells Angels-Providence Chapter, according to a law enforcement source.

Rhode Island State Police have made prior drug arrests at the location.

The FBI said it had no additional comment.

Mon
14
Jan
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Smithfield firefighter sentenced in sweeping motorcycle gang case

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Mon, 01/14/2019 - 9:53pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A Smithfield firefighter has been sentenced after being swept up in a major crackdown on motorcycle gangs in Rhode Island. 

Thomas Mulcahey, 54, pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor drug charges last month.

He was arrested in May as part of a R.I. State Poilce sting dubbed, "Operation Patched Out." State police, along with federal and local authorities, arrested 50 people in what Col. Ann Assumpico said was the single largest takedown in state history.

According to a spokesperson for the R.I. Attorney General's Office, Mulcahey won't serve any time in prison. As part of a plea deal, he was given one year of probation and a one-year suspended sentence.

According to Smithfield Fire Chief, Robert Seltzer, Mulcahey was placed on administrative leave after his arrest. 

Fri
09
Nov
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Grand jury indicts 41 people connected to R.I. motorcycle gangs

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Fri, 11/09/2018 - 7:41am

(video) --- PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A statewide grand jury has indicted 41 of 61 people arrested this spring in a state police undercover investigation into alleged assaults, drug-dealing and gun-running by Rhode Island motorcycle gang members or their associates.

The state attorney general’s office released the 171-page indictment on Thursday that listed 424 counts of alleged crimes.

Sixteen others have already waived their right to have their cases presented to the grand jury and pleaded guilty, said Amy Kempe, spokeswoman for Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin.

Four others had their cases referred to the state’s Drug Court or to the attorney general’s Adult Diversion Unit, which serves as an alternative to prosecution for first-time nonviolent felony offenders.

Mon
23
Jul
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R.I. police pull over 100 motorcycle club members, but issue no citations

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Mon, 07/23/2018 - 8:32pm

HOPKINTON, R.I. — What happens when police officers from three departments pull over about 100 members of a motorcycle club on an interstate highway? Well, sometimes nothing.

Such was the case Saturday afternoon when Rhode Island State Police, assisted by officers from Hopkinton and Connecticut, pulled over about 100 members of the Pagans motorcycle club on Route 95 shortly after they had crossed into Rhode Island.

Laura Meade Kirk, spokeswoman for the Rhode Island State Police, said the motorcyclists were pulled over about 1:30 p.m. Saturday as part of an “investigatory stop.”

But the stop turned up not a single violation nor culminated in a single arrest, she said, and the bikers continued on their way to a club rally in Fall River.

Tue
17
Jul
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Authorities tapped phone of leader of biker gang

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Tue, 07/17/2018 - 6:22pm

Court affidavit outlines Deric “Tuna” McGuire’s rise to head of Pagans motorcycle club.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — For almost a year, state and federal agents wiretapped the many different telephones used by a Burrillville man, capturing, they say, his recruitment to lead a new Rhode Island chapter of the Pagans outlaw motorcycle gang and documenting his illegal drug enterprise.

Hundreds of transcribed pages of recorded conversations between Deric “Tuna” McGuire and his associates were unsealed Tuesday as part of the state police’s Operation Patched Out investigation, which in May led to more than 50 people arrested.

The recorded conversations are part of a 1,274-page affidavit that supported dozens of searches of homes, cars and motorcycles when scores of agents swept across northern Rhode Island making arrests.

Thu
24
May
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R.I. seen as key crossroads for biker gangs

Submitted by THUMPERRRR on Thu, 05/24/2018 - 5:48pm

The popularity of motorcycle clubs exploded in the 1940s when thousands of World War II veterans, who had shared the adrenaline of combat and a brotherhood unmatched, found themselves on the tranquil thresholds of middle-class America — and bored.

Looking to share again in dangerous thrills, some turned to motorcycles. In 1947 thousands of bikers streamed into Hollister, California, for races and a rally where drinking and club rivalries brought havoc to the small town.

The resulting outcry prompted the American Motorcyclist Association to declare that 99 percent of motorcycle clubs were law-abiding and harmless.

Seventy years later, the nefarious few — like the two clubs Rhode Island law enforcement literally blew the doors off Wednesday — still proudly call themselves “1 percenters.”

And for the last few years some violent biker gangs have been feuding over Rhode Island turf, says State Police Lt. Col. Joseph Philbin.

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