Meth, torture and the grip of the Aryan Brotherhood
By Michael E. Miller June 10 at 5:33 AM WashPost
“Blood in, blood out.”
Normally, the Aryan Brotherhood motto means aspiring members must assault someone to get into the gang, and can only leave when they die. In between, they sport “SS” Nazi lightning bolt tattoos on both sides of their neck: visible signs of their blood oath, and their belief in white supremacy.
In rare cases, however, brothers who have broken the rules are stripped of their membership — in the most gruesome and literal way possible.
That’s what happened on May 2, 2013, when three men associated with the Universal Aryan Brotherhood — Oklahoma’s very own off-shoot of the infamous Neo-Nazi organization — kidnapped a brother who hadn’t been selling his share of methamphetamine.
Ronnie “Dirty Red” Haskins and Robert Bryan held the brother down. A man nicknamed Buddha produced a burning hot hunting knife. Finally, a handsome drug dealer named Aaron Clay King, just three months out of prison, gripped the glowing blade and pressed it to the brother’s skin, turning the lightning bolts into boils and scars.
The brutal torture episode appears in an indictment filed against 11 alleged UAB members or associates in November. On Thursday, Bryan pleaded guilty to his role in it. On Tuesday, two more men with ties to the Universal Aryan Brotherhood (UAB), including a member of its powerful Main Council, pleaded guilty to racketeering and selling meth.
The plea deals were announced in a somber Department of Justice press release. There were no victorious quotes from federal prosecutors; no promise to break the UAB.
Perhaps that’s because the victory seems Pyrrhic. How to defeat a gang that doesn’t just openly recruit and operate inside Oklahoma’s prisons, but practically owns the institutions? What to do when each arrest just adds to the organization’s ranks?
(More here.)
“Blood in, blood out.”
Normally, the Aryan Brotherhood motto means aspiring members must assault someone to get into the gang, and can only leave when they die. In between, they sport “SS” Nazi lightning bolt tattoos on both sides of their neck: visible signs of their blood oath, and their belief in white supremacy.
In rare cases, however, brothers who have broken the rules are stripped of their membership — in the most gruesome and literal way possible.
That’s what happened on May 2, 2013, when three men associated with the Universal Aryan Brotherhood — Oklahoma’s very own off-shoot of the infamous Neo-Nazi organization — kidnapped a brother who hadn’t been selling his share of methamphetamine.
Ronnie “Dirty Red” Haskins and Robert Bryan held the brother down. A man nicknamed Buddha produced a burning hot hunting knife. Finally, a handsome drug dealer named Aaron Clay King, just three months out of prison, gripped the glowing blade and pressed it to the brother’s skin, turning the lightning bolts into boils and scars.
The brutal torture episode appears in an indictment filed against 11 alleged UAB members or associates in November. On Thursday, Bryan pleaded guilty to his role in it. On Tuesday, two more men with ties to the Universal Aryan Brotherhood (UAB), including a member of its powerful Main Council, pleaded guilty to racketeering and selling meth.
The plea deals were announced in a somber Department of Justice press release. There were no victorious quotes from federal prosecutors; no promise to break the UAB.
Perhaps that’s because the victory seems Pyrrhic. How to defeat a gang that doesn’t just openly recruit and operate inside Oklahoma’s prisons, but practically owns the institutions? What to do when each arrest just adds to the organization’s ranks?
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home