Posted on 06/09/2005 9:59:21 PM PDT by Horatio Gates
lol, see my reply to myself. I meant guns.
Man, if you think that was excessive, you don't even want to how many federal agents investigated John Gotti, and he was just one guy.
A group of the Bandidos had a house out on Drayton Cove (Birch Bay/Blaine) for years. I don't know if they moved or were kicked out. One of the long time members died a few years ago and they held a huge funeral with bikers from all over in attendance and of course the funeral procession was all on bikes. The police were expecting trouble but it didn't happen. It was all quiet and dignified (as dignified as possible with a bunch of bikers).
I just remembered that it was that house on Drayton Cove was supposed to have been the place where that Florida teenager was taken. She was supposedly kidnapped by a biker thirty years ago and the mother recieved a letter years later saying that she was seen at that house.
Gotti was a whole different ball game, and he was not just one guy.
He made the feds look real bad, avoiding their numerous attempts to end his career. He beat three of their prosecution attempts, and basically laughed in their faces. He was high profile target, and there was big money and several homicides involved here. Not only that, he had dozens of high level criminal types assisting him. Without his boys, he was basically nothing.
He was a hard nut to crack, and if it wasn't for planted electronic bugs, he would have dodged a 4th prosecution attempt.
Ooops almost forgot to answer that one fer ya. This wouldn't be the sole investigation for these agents. These agents are all working a case load. This deal was probably an interuption for some agents who were brought in to assist with warrant service and without a breakdown of who did what, and salaries plus other expenses, it may have cost more than the number you quoted (or less.) They may have even included the new guy who went to Starbucks on the coffee run. It seems the Feds move their agents around a lot on details. When Kerry was on the road campaigning in our town, I was very surprised to see ICE agents on part of the security team.
I kind of suspected that. Then again, as you said, it was a big investigation, so I would also suspect more time was devoted to this, and the time spent on the other cases was probably reduced somewhat.
IMHO, it may not be fair, but to some degree it's understandable. British bikes still get trashed over Lucas electrics, and Harleys are still living down AMF.
I'm just pissed I had to sell my BMW K12RS when I moved to Thailand and now I am stuck with a 125cc Honda step-through. :(
We got the alert in the a.m. of this operation. We actually were told just in case we pulled a MC club member over and they had heard folks were getting scooped up.
Gun running. Hmm. Isn’t that what they said about Randy & Dave. With a little drugs thrown in for good measure.
Now that being said, it doesn't matter who innocent or guilty Randy or Dave was. The Bandidos are most likely not only guilty of everything they've been charged with, but guilty of everything they weren't charged with as well.
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