Press "Enter" to skip to content

Key Bandidos member pleads guilty to racketeering

The former president of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club is standing his ground against federal organized crime charges that could land him in prison for life, even as a key member pleaded guilty Friday to racketeering in a possible bid for leniency in his case.

 

Jeff Pike, the former president and still powerful member of the motorcycle club, was charged earlier this year with three other Bandidos in federal court in San Antonio with racketeering to commit murder, drug trafficking and other crimes.

 

Justin Cole Forster's guilty plea Friday in San Antonio is set to be followed next week with a plea by another key member, Frederick "Fast Fred" Cortez, according to court documents.

That would leave Pike, who lives in Conroe, and vice president John Portillo, of San Antonio, still facing the federal charges, which carry a penalty of up to life in prison.

Court papers indicate they are set to face trial next summer before U.S. District Judge David Ezra.

"If he [Forster] said he is guilty then he probably is," Pike's attorney, Kent A. Schaffer, said Friday via email. "It does not affect Mr. Pike at all."

Forster's and Cortez's lawyers could not be reached for comment.

Pike, 61, who recently stepped down as leader of the Bandidos to face the charges, has been adamant that he has not broken the law and that the group is not a criminal organization.

Schaffer and attorney James Kennedy, who is also representing Pike, have sought to portray Pike as a new breed of Bandido seeking to clean up the club's image and avoid legal trouble.

"The truth is, over the years a lot of these old outlaws have fallen by the wayside," Schaffer has told the Chronicle. "They have died or gone to prison, or didn't want to go back to prison, so they stopped breaking the law."

The Bandidos have at least 1,500 members, according to prosecutors, and its officers are the most powerful and influential members.

The pleas stand to greatly change the landscape of the case for prosecutors preparing for trial.

"They want to know who is going to be cooperating with them and on their team as early as possible" said former federal prosecutor Jeff Vaden, who is based in Houston. "It allows them to see what they have in their bag and narrow their scope of their focus."

 

Vaden said that Pike will have to huddle with his lawyer to determine the impact of the pleas.

"If in fact any of the defendants who have pleaded guilty cooperate with the government and have relevant information about Mr. Pike, that can certainly be powerful evidence," Vaden said.

Pike has been adamant that he didn't break the law and has said he is not interested in any deals that would send him to prison, even for a light sentence, for something he didn't do.

"I don't know what my brothers did or what they didn't do," he told the Chronicle earlier this year. "I know I didn't know nothing about it."

The Department of Justice contends Pike is not just an outlaw biker but has been the leader of a sophisticated criminal organization with members who don't trust outsiders and have no fear of authority.

The indictment alleges the Bandidos were at war with the Cossacks Motorcycle Club and describes an array of violence, such as a shooting, a stabbing and multiple beatings on behalf of the organization.

Forster faces up to life in federal prison after his guilty plea to conspiracy to commit racketeering, drug trafficking, violence and extortion, said U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr, of the Western District of Texas.

A member of the Bandidos since 2006, and sergeant at arms since 2011, Forster is tentatively set to be sentenced in January.

Cortez, is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

Pike is the only one of the four persons charged in the case to be released on bond. A federal magistrate judge ruled that prosecutors had not revealed enough evidence to show Pike was a danger to the community or at risk of fleeing instead of facing trial.

A federal indictment contends Pike and Portillo directed, sanctioned, approved and permitted other members of the Bandidos to commit murder, attempted murder, assault, intimidation, extortion, drug trafficking and other crimes to protect and enhance "the organization's power, territory, reputation and profits."

The indictment also contends the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs were clashing with one another, and alleges violence before and after the May 2015 melee at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco. More than 170 bikers were arrested by local authorities and charged with engaging in organized crime after the clash in Waco that left nine bikers dead and several wounded.