The Hells Angels’ new Bronx headquarters was searched and two other men were arrested as police put the final touches on their probe into the murder of a rival motorcycle gang leader, prosecutors said Thursday.
Cops executed a search warrant of the Hells Angels new home on Longstreet Ave. in Throggs Neck on July 15, finding a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol in the drawer of a nightstand in a back bedroom. A shotgun was also found in the same room, officials said.
Daniel Canales, 68, who was living at the motorcycle club’s headquarters, was arrested for weapons possession after the firearms were found, officials said.
The search took place as investigators zeroed in on three Hells Angels members they believe assassinated 51-year-old Francisco Rosado, the president of the Pagans Motorcycle Club’s Bronx chapter, in a parking lot near the Holland Ave. building where he worked as a super.
Frank “Loose Cannon” Tatulli, 58; Anthony Destefano, 27; and Sayanon “Andy” Thongthwath, 29, were all arrested Tuesday for the May killing. All three were charged with murder, manslaughter and gun possession and ordered held without bail during a brief arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court Wednesday night.[More New York] ‘It could have been lethal’: NYC Gristedes supermarket manager counts his blessings after being bashed with hammer by repeat offender »
Prosecutors hit Tatulli with additional gun charges after cops found a loaded .38 caliber revolver, a 12-gauge shotgun and an air-rifle, in a black storage locker in a workshop at his home on Hollywood Ave., prosecutors said.
An upstairs tenant, 30-year-old Jesse Burke, was also arrested for weapons possession after a loaded .9-mm caliber handgun and two magazines were found sitting on his kitchen counter, officials said.
Burke and Canales were both released without bail following brief arraignments Wednesday.[More New York] Man shot dead inside Staten Island deli, one week after being released from prison on gun possession charge »
Prosecutors said the Hells Angels members were the masked men caught on disturbing video jumping out of a Jeep Cherokee in a lot on Holland Ave. near Boston Road in Allerton about 3:20 p.m. on May 2. Two of them opened fire on Rosado, striking him five times in the neck and chest. Another man with Rosado was hit in the arm, but survived, cops said.
The heavily tattooed Rosado was the head of the Pagans Motorcycle Club’s Bronx chapter. The club has been deemed an outlaw motorcycle gang by federal authorities, and several of its members have been linked to drug dealing, violence and death, officials said.
Rosado’s wife was overcome with emotion when she learned of the arrests Wednesday.
“I give all the glory to Jesus,” Jeannie Rosado said as she started to cry. “It’s bittersweet. It’s good that they were caught, but it doesn’t bring him back.”
“I pray that they get everything they deserve,” she said, adding that she didn’t know the defendants or if there was any bad blood between the Hells Angels and the Pagans.
“I wasn’t aware of any feud,” she said. “We still don’t know why. It just goes to show you the evil we have in the world right now.”
In January, someone fired several shots at the Hells Angels’ new headquarters on Longstreet Ave. in Throgs Neck, although it is not immediately clear if that incident is connected to Rosado’s murder.
The Hells Angels bought the fenced-off, two-story brick building near Wissman Ave. in early December — rankling residents living in the quiet, middle-class neighborhood — after selling its Manhattan clubhouse to a developer in June.
