National crackdown on Pagans cycle gang

Federal authorities launched a massive crackdown on the Pagans outlaw motorcycle club yesterday, arresting more than 50 members and associates on charges ranging from conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault to extortion, drug distribution, and gambling.

The club's national leaders were the prime targets of a 44-count racketeering indictment unsealed yesterday morning in Charleston, W. Va. Agents made arrests in eight states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Among other things, club leaders were charged with plotting to kill a suspected cooperating witness and a gang rival.

They also were charged with ordering kidnappings, assaults, and other acts of violence in order to intimidate rival biker gangs and maintain control over Pagan "territory."

National club president David "Bart" Barbeito, 49, of Myersville, Md., and vice president Floyd "Diamond Jesse" Moore, 64, of St. Albans, W. Va., were ordered held without bail.

Pagan club members and associates also were arrested in Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, and Virginia.

Nine members of the Philadelphia chapter, including the club's president, were charged with a gambling offense that was part of the broader racketeering case.

A South Jersey Pagan also was named in that count. Other New Jersey members were charged with taking part in an assault and with obstruction of justice.

All are scheduled to appear for formal arraignments in Charleston next week. Most were released on bail.

Those charged locally included Damian Foti, 33, of South Philadelphia, the president of the local chapter. He and more than a dozen other Pagans from the area were charged with interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

Authorities allege that in April 2008 they traveled to West Virginia with proceeds from an illegal gambling operation. The undisclosed cash was turned over to Moore, who in turn passed the money to Barbeito.

The indictment provided few details about the gambling operation except to identify it as a "raffle" in which members of the Pagans collected cash for raffle tickets for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Whether the raffle took place or was part of a scam could not be determined. Authorities have declined to comment about specific charges, but sources said the Pagans routinely sold raffle tickets for nonexistent motorcycles.

Foti's lawyer, Gregory Pagano, said he was "surprised" that a relatively minor charge such as running an illegal raffle would result in a racketeering indictment.

"I'm surprised the government would go to the trouble," Pagano said after a hearing in which his client was released on $20,000 bond.

That kind of charge would be a misdemeanor or a summary offense in city or state court, he said.

"It's just because they're Pagans," Pagano said. "That's what it's about."

Eight of the nine local defendants were released on bond yesterday. Vincent Pazzano, 48, of South Philadelphia, was held over for a hearing set for today.

The seven other local Pagan members or associates charged were William Desalvatore, 47, of Horsham; Stephen Dunn, 33, of Camden; Joseph Schmidt, 37, of Marcus Hook, and Timothy Flood, 47, Joseph Fareri, 49, Dominick Dipietro, 46, and Vincent Talotta, 34, all of Philadelphia.

Several other New Jersey members of the organization, including Daniel Reilly, 57, of Egg Harbor Township, and Rocco Boyd, 48, of Little Ferry, also were named in the interstate gambling run.

The bikers allegedly rode to West Virginia for what the indictment described as a "mandatory event" set up by Moore, the national vice president.

In fact, authorities allege, the run and the raffle proceeds were tribute payments to the "mother club" headed by Barbeito and Moore.

Boyd and another reputed gang member, Joseph Cotton, 59, of Pemberton, were charged with obstruction of justice and assault with a deadly weapon in an alleged plot to keep a potential witness from going to authorities.

The indictment grew out of a five-year investigation coordinated by the U.S. Attorney's Office in West Virginia and conducted by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The indictment described the Pagans as "a national criminal organization located primarily in the eastern half of the United States" that routinely used "intimidation, violence, threats of violence, assaults and other violent crimes" to protect their territory and expand their power.