Authorities on Wednesday described the 42-strong arrest of alleged members and affiliates of the San Fernando Valley Peckerwoods as one of the biggest operations against a White supremacist neo-Nazi gang in the Department of Justice’s history.
On Wednesday morning, numerous individuals were apprehended in the San Fernando Valley and its environs by federal and local law enforcement officials, who included members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. These police executed 29 arrest warrants and carried out several searches.
Operationally, 68 individuals associated with or members of the White nationalist gang were charged in a federal indictment including 76 counts that was unsealed on Wednesday.
At a news conference, the authorities informed the media that they are still looking for the 26 suspects who are still at large, classifying them as fugitives.
According to FBI Los Angeles Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis, they anticipate that this probe would “significantly cripple” the domestic terrorist group.
FBI Los Angeles Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis stated that, “It’s not hyperbole to say the sheer scale of this operation is historic. This is a historic event to federally indict this many members of a hate group.”
The Jewish nonprofit organization Anti-Defamation League said on its website that the SFV Peckerwoods are a combination of skinhead, street, and prison gangs. The group’s “White supremacy is more often crude than sophisticated and they have a high association with criminal activity, such as drugs.”
The 60 distinct accusations in the indictment describe 60 distinct incidents where a Peckerwoods member or associate was apprehended in possession of large amounts of drugs.
The gang members are also charged with making money through financial fraud and robberies, notably by embezzling money from the Paycheck Protection Program, which was set up to support companies that had been negatively impacted financially by the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The Peckerwoods are involved in a wide variety of criminal activity everything from drug trafficking to fraud offenses to firearms offenses, violence and identity theft, but what truly distinguishes them what defines them is their hate and their animus towards racial ethnic and religious minorities,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California stated.
The group is well-known for flying the Confederate flag and other emblems of White supremacist imagery, such as swastikas and other neo-Nazi imagery.
When pressed to name any crimes motivated by bias, Estrada cited the gang member Ryan Bradford’s arrest in April. Law enforcement learned that not only was he reportedly selling drugs but also building explosive devices and guns.
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He allegedly had a “treasure trove of White nationalist regalia, including replica Nazi uniforms and posters of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as well as a planner in which was put his New Year’s vow to “bake every single Jew.”
Davis referred to the Peckerwoods as “a chapter” of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s description of the oldest significant White supremacist prison gang and a nationwide criminal syndicate, citing their affiliation with the Aryan Brotherhood.
