Leader of motorcycle gang sentenced for trafficking meth, firearms
Reporter: Chelsea DonovanWRAL February 3, 2023
https://www.wral.com/leader-of-motorcycle-gang-sentenced-for-drug-trafficking-firearm-and-money-laundering/20703010/
U.S. Attorney Michael Easley, federal officials and the Raleigh Police Department announce the sentence of Christopher Lamar Baker, a leader of the Pagan motorcycle gang, who was convicted last year of drug trafficking, firearm and money laundering charges.
Transcript
The Department’s covert operations and surveillance as well as federal wiretaps to collect evidence up and down the eastern seaboard. And right here in eastern North Carolina. Christopher Baker was a prolific meth trafficker trafficking over 260 kg of highly pure methamphetamine With nearly 100% purity Of those 260 odd kilos that he trafficked in the two years before his arrest. There’s a photograph to my right of five kg of crystal methamphetamine on the back of a honda that was part of this operation.
Christopher Baker’s network spanned the Carolinas. His network spanned the entire east coast, but he was supplied by two main sources of crystal methamphetamine. First directly from a cartel source in Atlanta and second from a white supremacist gang known as the ghost face. Gangsters. Baker used guns and violence as tools of the trade to further his drug trafficking and advance his status in the Pagans. Guns seized by the A T F. And the Raleigh Police Department are on display here including a tec nine handgun, a sawed off shotgun and two fully automatic machine guns. But our investigation did not stop with Baker also indicted among these 20 defendants include his Atlanta-based sources of supply.
The 75 year sentence that chief Judge Richard Meier’s imposed on Baker reflects Baker’s violence, his propensity for violence in his utter disregard for the law. In one example, an aspiring pagan known as a prospect was alleged to have stolen from another pagan. Baker ordered that the prospect be tortured and his fingers cut off with an electric saw while he forced others to watch. Baker also ordered the killing of two people.
Thankfully unsuccessfully, one was rescued by the intervention of Raleigh Police Department and the A T F which put the potential victim into protective custody. A T F in the Raleigh Police Department should be commended for their incredible work in this investigation. Their officers and their agents put their lives on the line every day to keep the rest of us safe and we all of them. A great, a great debt of gratitude.
As for Christopher Baker, he’s been stripped of his patch is stripped of his colors, stripped of his motorcycle. He will never again feel the freedom of the open road that millions of law abiding bikers enjoy every day. He will spend the rest of his life in federal prison.
The justice department is sending a clear message to organize crime across this country and across the state of North Carolina. If you sow violence and traffic drugs in the State of North Carolina, we will come for you and we will hold you to account.
I want to highlight two elements of this case which illustrate a growing problem, meth and machine guns. First, if you traffic drugs while possessing an automatic machine gun to include the fully automatic machine guns like those on this table, You will face a 30 year mandatory minimum. And I want that to be known 2nd as to methamphetamine. The methamphetamine that we are seeing in eastern North Carolina and across the country is not meth that’s cooked in a bathtub with Sudafed. This is highly pure cartel made methamphetamine cooked in a Mexican lab With a degree of purity that we have not seen in recent years. Nearly 100% purity, the methamphetamine in terms of the volume, the quantity and the potency in this case is absolutely staggering.
This case is a clear example of how Mexican cartels partner with American gangs to traffic methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs to every corner of our state in our country. It is increasingly driving people to psychosis to homelessness and it’s ripping families and communities apart. Stopping violent organizations like this one in disrupting the flow of methamphetamine to our communities is a top priority for my office and the Department of Justice.
Our investigation into outlaw motorcycle gangs continues and it will continue until those who are violent and bringing drugs into this community are brought to justice. This is part of a sustained effort. A collaboration with the Raleigh chief of police and her incredible team and federal law enforcement agencies across eastern North Carolina to ensure that people here in Raleigh and across eastern North Carolina can live out their lives in peace without fear of violence and drug trafficking in our streets.
With that. I’d like to pass it over to Raleigh chief of police, Estella Patterson who I know needs to step to another engagement uh soon. So I want you to have the opportunity to hear from her. Thank you, Chief.
Thank you, Mr Good morning. I stated my name is Estella Patterson and I am the chief of Police for the Raleigh Police Department. It is an honor to stand with my colleagues and partners today to once again announced as Mr Easily has stated that another criminal element has been disrupted and key members removed from the streets of Raleigh, the success of this investigation and the company indictments are a result of the tremendous work of our detectives assigned to the Raleigh Police Department’s Criminal Enterprise, drug unit agents from the A T F and FBI members of the City County Bureau of Identification, the U S Marshal’s office and the U S Attorney’s Office of the eastern district of North Carolina.
Each day, the men and women assigned to these teams devote great energy countless hours and immense resources to pursue individuals and organizations such as this for the betterment of our great city, The actions of the defendant in this case, Mr Christopher Baker and the criminal organization that he represented, jeopardized the safety of every member of our community. The 46 firearms that were confiscated as a result of this investigation undoubtedly saved countless lives from being harmed or even taken.
The kilograms of methamphetamines and other controlled substances that were seized were very likely prevented the overdose of a young person who may have been introduced to drugs or might have been recovering individuals whose parents and loved ones have desperately prayed for and seeking intervention to ensure the betterment of their future. The efforts of our detectives agents marshals and many others have averted senseless tragedies in our city. I can assure you that the work of our dedicated professionals across law enforcement teams to bring this case to justice and prevent further harm to our community is just the beginning as Mr Easily stated, collectively, we are devoting more resources to reduce narcotic distribution and prevent violence in our streets and in our neighborhoods to those engaging in criminal enterprises.
Hear me when I say we’re not tolerable of your behavior and we’re coming after you and all those who aids and abets you as our city and our region continues to grow. The Raleigh Police Department is fully committed to standing shoulder to shoulder with our local state, federal and community partners to disrupt criminal organizations that negatively impact the quality of life for our Children, for our seniors, for all who reside in our community. We will not stop our pursuit against criminal behavior until Raleigh is the safest city to live, learn, play and work to our community. Thank you for your continued support and confidence in our police department and our entire law enforcement profession to keep you safe. To those standing with me today. Thank you for your incredible leadership, your partnership and ownership, investigations of this magnitude and the success of it. We are fortunate to have you on this side of the law. Thank you. Mhm. I’d like to ask special agent in charge of the A T F many members to come forward to share a few words. His agency has done so much to focus and learn and investigate and prosecute outlaw motorcycle gangs uh nationally for many years, we’re grateful for your partnership.
Just a few words here. I want to start off by thanking the United States attorney and the police department for their commitment to making this case a success. A T F has a long history with the outlaw motorcycle gangs. Recognizing that these groups often tied closely tied closely to a number of criminal acts including gun violence, found trafficking and drug trafficking. This case has been particularly important to A T F and our partners for 15 months, 80 ATF special agents and Raleigh Police Department’s Criminal and uh enterprise drug unit have put their focus on members of the area. Pagan motorcycle club, a recognized outlaw motorcycle gang involved in distribution of large quantities of methamphetamine and firearms in North Carolina and ST surrounding states.
A lot of long hours and every resource at our disposal went into making sure this case reached this point that we’re at right now as the United States attorneys minute. And as chief has mentioned, the possibility was caught, charged and sentenced from this case are responsible for putting Incredible amounts of illegal narcotics in our streets. I’m very pleased, also announced that we also sees 46 firearms for some very dangerous individuals during this investigation. This effort highlights the importance of effective federal and state agencies working together and every minute spent on this case was well spent. And we’ve uh as we brought some very violent and individuals to justice to help my community safer in North Carolina. And be honest, thank you, turn it back over.
We can try to answer some questions uh bearing in mind that we are somewhat limited in our ability to talk about ongoing investigations but happy to take some questions uh if we can.
Yes, ma’am. Uh This case was launched in 2020. I shouldn’t say this case, but this operation was launched in 2020. And so it really was a very thoughtfully laid out and concerted effort. One of the things about our organized crime and drug enforcement task force is that it is a prosecutor led intelligence driven operation that is totally built upon partnerships. So it’s not so much an organization as it is a commitment in a partnership and local law enforcement like Raleigh Police Department will devote officers to be cross worn as task force officers to work with federal agencies to build cases like this. And it allows us to really combine this local knowledge and local intelligence.
That Raleigh Police Department is so incredible about cultivating with federal tools like federal wiretaps that can let us tap into transnational or multi state organized crime operations. So that’s a pretty lengthy operation. But it’s really the only way to get at significant organized crime cases like this one.
Yes, ma’am. Uh What I’ll say is in every case, we will follow the facts and the law wherever they lead and outlaw motorcycle gangs, be they the Pagans or, or any others that are engaged in violence here in North Carolina. We absolutely are paying close attention to and our investigations into outlaw motorcycle gangs and the violence that they perpetrate continues.
Yes, ma’am. Yes. So I know she, Patterson, you mentioned having a specialized team in the past to look into outlaw motorcycle groups and, and she just mentioned this that happened on New Year’s Day. What’s keeping you busy? Well, the city of Raleigh is keeping me busy. Yes. And so really, our investigations with the motorcycle gangs really yields to our federal partners and to our task force officers that are working on that. Um I’m devoting the majority of my resources to what is happening day to day in the Raleigh community, in our streets and within our communities. So that’s where we have put the resources primarily.
We are leaning very heavily on our federal partners to help us with the outlaw gangs and the other motorcycle gangs. And this might be for, for you Mr Easily. But can you just talk about how prevalent Mr Baker was in terms of, you know how big it was? Right? So the Pagans uh motorcycle club fans out internationally, but the United States is run by what’s known as a mother club. And there are functionally 13 uh folks that lead that what they call the mother club. And one who achieved the rank of 13 is one of those national leaders. And typically, it’s someone who comes up beginning as a chapter president who then achieved the rank of Diamondback and, and then leads the organization within a given state and then can ascend to the level of one of the 13 national leaders.
And in this case, um Mr Baker followed that exact path and became one of the 13 national uh members of that Mother Club organization. And in uh that capacity, led the Pagans operations in North and South Carolina. And I’ll look to my A T F partners if they can clarify any further than I have on sort of the structure and organization roughly. Um there’s a bit of literature on this, this, this out there uh, and of course, things are subject to change anything you’d add to that.
No, I think it’s just, like I said, we have a lot of motorcycle outlaw cycle gangs out there to kind of consider themselves the one percenters. And those are always the, you have obviously recreational motorcycle gangs, but the ones that we really pay attention to all those ones that identify as a one percenter and not all one percenters.
But again, as he said, I can’t necessarily go into details, but this is a national international gang and they’ve been associated and causing violence throughout the country and the whole uh world honestly. So About a dozen or Pagans. So uh there, there are 20 defendants overall in the operation. Um there are several women who were indicted. Uh Pagans are, is a men’s only club so of the, of the 20 indicted about a dozen were Pagans.
Uh And the women were not, we also mentioned the indictment of two suppliers of drugs and, and firearms to Mr Baker and his crew. Yes, the movement of meth was across multiple states and it involved our investigation involved partnerships with state police in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. Um There was testimony at the trial with of folks traveling as far as West Virginia if I’m remembering correctly. Uh There are no charges for, for hate crimes in this case.
Yes, sir. Is this regional chapter not the front or are they just gonna cycle somebody up to the top and this chapter still exists that I can’t speak to right now. I will say that those members of this or any group that engage in violence will be receiving absolute heightened attention.
All right. Thank you folks. I appreciate your time.
Thank you. Thank you. I got to get you. Bet I got you something.