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 2 arrested in federal raids in N. Illinois |
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| 2 arrested in federal raids in N. Illinois |
   
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CHICAGO ? At least two people were arrested Wednesday as federal agents served search warrants during a crackdown at chapters of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club across northern Illinois.
Two heavily armed SWAT teams patrolled Division Street outside a building where the banner of the Chicago chapter of the Outlaws ? red and black with a sinister-looking skull ? was draped. A sign on the door also said the club met there.
In Kankakee, about 60 miles south of Chicago, an FBI plane circled overhead Wednesday as armed agents stormed the South Washington Avenue headquarters of the Outlaws, The (Kankakee) Daily Journal reported.
Kankakee police blocked the street and SWAT team members ordered a food pantry next door to lock its doors and keep patrons inside during the raid, pantry officials said.
At least two men were taken away in handcuffs from the Outlaws building, the paper reported.
Officials declined to say exactly what they were looking for in the numerous searches which according to FBI spokesman Frank Bochte took place over an area stretching from Kankakee to Elgin and suburban Cook County.
The raids were staged jointly by the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, ATF spokesman Tom Ahern said.
Two people were arrested, he said.
Ahern declined to give names or specify the charges but did indicate that additional information would become available Thursday when the two are due to appear before a federal magistrate judge.
Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney?s office in Chicago, declined to comment.
Members of the Outlaws club, which began in the Chicago suburb of McCook in 1935 but has expanded to Asia, Canada and Europe, have been targeted by federal agencies, resulting in convictions ranging from drugs and weapons to murder.
In the past year, a federal grand jury in Detroit indicted 16 people on assault, drug distribution and weapons possession charges. All were members or gang associates of Outlaws? chapters in Michigan and Indiana, according to the indictment.
Authorities last year also arrested 15 members of the Outlaws in Boston on drug and firearms charges.
The efforts were part of the federal government?s push to fight gangs and gang violence in the United States, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at the time
http://www.galesburg.com/news/x134689634...s-in-N-Illinois
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02.08.2008 11:09 |
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