Hells Angels member arrested on charges of gun trafficking

Jace Radke

Wednesday, July 9, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.

A member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang who is under investigation in connection with a 2002 gun battle in a Laughlin casino that killed three people was among those arrested in Arizona Tuesday on charges of gun and explosives trafficking.

Calvin Schaefer, 34, was arrested in Chandler, Ariz., as part of a two-year undercover federal investigation that resulted in 36 arrest warrants and 40 search warrants being served in Arizona.

Schaefer was arrested by Metro Police in April 2002 after two members of the Hells Angels and a member of the Mongols motorcycle gang were shot and killed at Harrah's during the annual Laughlin River Run motorcycle rally. Schaefer was later released, and charges against him were dropped in July 2002.

Investigators with Metro Police and the Clark County District Attorney's office are continuing to review videotape of the gun battle and sorting through a list of 11 potential defendants in the case. The statute of limitations on the case is two years, officials with the district attorney's office said.

"Detectives are still working on the case, still investigating," said Carla Alston, a spokeswoman with Metro.

Schaefer was charged Tuesday with two counts of possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute and two counts of possessing a firearm.

Metro has been sharing intelligence information with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the lead agency involved in serving warrants Tuesday along with the U.S. Marshals Service and local police departments in Arizona, Alston said.

The warrants targeted members of the Hells Angels and others not affiliated with the group for violations that included the sale of silencers, machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, explosives and drugs, and participation in murder-for-hire throughout Arizona, ATF officials said.

A total of 30 people were arrested in the raids, with authorities still looking for six fugitives, according to court documents. Fifty thousand dollars and 560 firearms were seized.

Twenty-two of the 40 search warrants in the case remain under seal, including those dealing with seized explosives.

Over the last two years undercover agents traveled with the targets of the investigation, Phoenix ATF spokesman Tom Mangan said.

"They had to go up to Las Vegas and to Laughlin at different times as part of the investigation," Mangan said.

Agents with the ATF and a Phoenix police detective infiltrated the Hells Angels posing as recruits from Mexico, said Paul Charlton, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.

Agents with the Las Vegas office of the ATF and members of the Las Vegas office of the U.S. Marshals Service assisted in serving the warrants in Arizona this morning.

"It was a joint effort by state, local and federal law enforcement, and there were probably more than 500 officers serving the warrants," ATF spokeswoman Marti McKee said.

Warrants were served in Phoenix, Chandler, Bullhead City, Glendale and other Arizona cities, McKee said.

Authorities conducted synchronized raids throughout Arizona starting at 4:45 a.m. as part of two separate investigations, said Harriet Bernick, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix.

One investigation focused on the Hells Angels and their associates, and the other on individuals suspected of firearms, explosives and narcotics violations and murder-for-hire, Bernick said.

"The two separate investigations basically intertwined because there was the same informants and the same undercovers used," Bernick said.

During one of the raids, a man was shot at a Phoenix residence authorities identified as the Cave Creek clubhouse of the Hells Angels. The man was taken to a Phoenix-area hospital and is expected to survive, Bernick said.