Chosen Few motorcycle gang caught in federal roundup

[samanthajane13]

By Dan Herbeck and Gene Warner
News Staff Reporters

Federal agents this morning are rounding up about 20 members and associates of the Chosen Few motorcycle gang.

The roundup caps an investigation of several months aimed at a wide range of crimes involving firearms, explosives and threats of violence by gang members, who operate from a former bank building in Depew.

According to police, members of the Chosen Few have been investigated in a number of criminal incidents in the past decade, most of them involving scraps with other biker gangs.

"They're an outlaw motorcycle club, as far as I'm concerned," one investigator said.

FBI agents and at least six other law-enforcement agencies have been investigating the gang and its operations in the Buffalo area for roughly the last 10 months.

The roundup began at about 6 a.m., and by mid-morning, at least 18 of the 20 suspects had been arrested. Authorities were expecting to arrest the other two before an afternoon press conference.

"They're being rounded up for various criminal acts involving weapons, possible explosives and assaults," said one law-enforcement official involved in the probe.

Search warrants were executed at several locations, including the Chosen Few's regional clubhouse in a former bank building at 94 Main St. in Depew.

One of those arrested on federal conspiracy charges is Alex Koschtschuk, a long-time local leader of the biker gang, police said.

Authorities said the defendants … men and women … were taken to U.S. District Court for their initial appearances.

Law-enforcement officials say that the Chosen Few declared war on the rival Kingsmen motorcycle club last summer, following two incidents that the Chosen Few blamed on its rivals:

È‚One of those incidents occurred at a Chosen Few "Bikes & Blues" rally in Como Park, when someone sliced a tent and wrote the initials KMC on it.

È‚The other occurred in August, when someone in a pickup truck was observed firing shots at the Chosen Few clubhouse in Depew.

Later in August, a man described as a Chosen Few associate was run off the road and shot at while riding his motorcycle in West Seneca.

Following that declaration of war, authorities say that the FBI used concealed listening devices and closed-circuit cameras to monitor activity and comments at the clubhouse.

Law-enforcement officials also are accusing Koschtschuk of providing Chosen Few members with general directions to commit violence against the Kingsmen.

In February, FBI agents charged a member of the rival Kingsmen gang with sending threatening text messages to a man whose brother belonged to the Chosen Few. That case, authorities said, is connected to the investigation that led to today's arrests.

In September 1997, West Seneca police said a dispute between Kingsmen and Chosen Few members resulted in a shootout that left a state corrections officer with a gunshot wound to his chest.

Among the law-enforcement agencies involved in today's roundup were the FBI, the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, the Erie County Probation Department and police from Depew, Lancaster, Buffalo, Amherst and the State Police.


http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/663955.html

[samanthajane13]

Biker club raid puts focus on theft case
By Dan Herbeck
NEWS STAFF REPORTER

When police raided the home of the president of the Chosen Few motorcycle club last week, they found about $5,500 worth of equipment allegedly stolen from his employer, the state Thruway Authority.

A wide range of items — including floodlights, electrical wire, raincoats, light bulbs, emergency flashers, numerous pairs of leather gloves and more than 30 boxes of paper towels — were seized from the Alden home of Alex Koschtschuk.

Police are investigating to determine how he got them, a federal prosecutor said Thursday.

“The Thruway Authority has been made aware of this investigation,” Assistant U. S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce said during a detention hearing for Koschtschuk.

Bruce also revealed that a series of diagrams were found indicating that the Chosen Few might have been planning to attack the local clubhouses and some homes of the Kingsmen, their rival club.

The prosecutor said the diagrams of Kingsmen clubhouses and homes were found by state police in Koschtschuk’s home.

And he told a judge that authorities suspect someone in local law enforcement — possibly a suburban police lieutenant — has been illegally giving the Chosen Few police mug shots of rival bikers.

Koschtschuk, 58, and another Thruway Authority worker— Alan “Deuce” Segool, identified by FBI agents as the Chosen Few vice president — were arrested May 7 with 18 other members of the biker club. They are accused of waging a violent war against the Kingsmen.

During Thursday’s hearing, Bruce called Koschtschuk a “danger to the public.” U. S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy ordered that Koschtschuk be jailed until his case comes to trial.

The ruling was a disappointment to Koschtschuk’s wife, Tracy, and to his attorney, Herbert L. Greenman, who said the federal investigation turned up “a lot of talk” but little evidence that Koschtschuk ever actually harmed anyone.

Greenman described Koschtschuk as a solid family man and working man whose past record includes no convictions for crimes of violence.

“[Koschtschuk is] not a danger to any person or to the community,” Greenman said.

Bruce disagreed, saying federal agents used hidden recording devices in the Chosen Few’s clubhouse in Depew to get tapes of Koschtschuk ordering his club members to go after the Kingsmen with guns, fists, ax handles and bombs.

“[Koschtschuk] is the unquestioned leader of this organization,” Bruce said.

Both Koschtschuk and Segool, 48, of West Falls, are employees of the Thruway Authority, according to state records obtained after a Freedom of Information request by The Buffalo News.

Koschtschuk is a general mechanic for the authority at an annual salary of $47,049. He was hired in August 1999 and is currently on leave without pay because of a work-related injury. He receives workers’ compensation pay.

Records show that Segool is a Thruway maintenance worker who was hired by the state in July 2001. Because of his arrest, he is on unauthorized leave without pay.

Before working with the Thruway Authority, Segool worked for six years as a police officer with the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority, said his attorney, Angelo Musitano.

Segool has never been convicted of a crime of violence, Musitano said, but McCarthy said he did not feel that he could risk releasing Segool on bail.

“I think he’s one of the key players [in the Chosen Few],” the judge said, “and I can’t be certain that he would not instruct others to use violence.”


http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/672149.html

[samanthajane13]

Violent feud between biker gangs leads to 20 arrests
Chosen Few accused of plotting violence
By Dan Herbeck and Gene Warner
NEWS STAFF REPORTERS

Tensions between two rival biker gangs — the Chosen Few and the Kingsmen—simmered for more than a decade.

Last summer, several Chosen Few members dragged a Kingsman off his motorcycle on Buffalo’s East Side, clobbering him with an ax handle

The next day, a Chosen Few member was run off the road and shot at as he rode through West Seneca.

A few weeks later, state police arrested a Chosen Few member with 31 deadly pipe bombs, which they said he intended to use to blow up a Kingsmen clubhouse.

And last Friday, two Kingsmen blasted the Chosen Few’s clubhouse on Main Street in Depew with 12 rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle, police say.

The escalating violence prompted investigators in a Safe Streets Task Force on Thursday to round up 20 members and associates of the Chosen Few, in hopes of preventing the violence from getting much worse.

While supporters of the Chosen Few say they are nothing more than hardworking family men who love their motorcycles, Depew police Capt. Mark Mediak applauded the arrests.

“This is a good day, one of the best days in the village,” Mediak said. “We’ve been dealing with [the Chosen Few] on a regular basis since they came here more than 10 years ago.

The defendants — many of them in their 40s and 50s with scruffy beards, tattoos or long pony tails—were arrested early Thursday on felony racketeering conspiracy charges.

According to acting U. S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter and FBI Special Agent Laurie J. Bennett, the men allegedly conspired to commit bombings, arsons, assaults and murders of their rivals.

Federal agents also alleged that Chosen Few members were behind the April 2004 firebombing of the clubhouse of another biker gang, the Lonely Ones, on Martin Road in Blasdell. They alleged that the firebombing was intended to kill people who were sleeping in the building, but no one was hurt.

“We want a safe community. We don’t want innocent bystanders to get caught in the crossfire between these gangs,” Bennett said.

The task force has been keeping a close eye on the Chosen Few since last summer. In August, agents installed court-authorized listening devices and tiny hidden cameras inside the Chosen Few’s Depew clubhouse, a fortresslike former bank building with a walk-in vault, where illegal weapons were stored.

The feds said they watched and listened as Chosen Few President Alex Koschtschuk and other club leaders denounced the Kingsmen and made plans for violent attacks.

“If you’re a Kingsman, you’re going to go down,” Koschtschuk allegedly said in the clubhouse last August, ranting because the Kingsmen had vandalized a Chosen Few tent at a “Bikes and Blues” gathering. “We’re not going to play games with these guys . . . We’re taking them down . . . Baseball bats, whatever you want, however you want.”

Koschtschuk, 58, a stocky man with a gray beard and gray hair slicked back into a pony tail, was arrested at his Alden home early Thursday morning. He appeared in court wearing a black T-shirt that featured the likeness of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and the words, “Chosen Few M. C. — Ride It Like You Stole It.”

A leader of the Chosen Few since at least the early 1980s, Koschtschuk was identified by police as a State Thruway Authority employee who is currently off work because of a disability. He pleaded not guilty during a brief appearance before U. S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy.

FBI Agent James A. Jancewicz said Koschtschuk and other Chosen Few leaders encouraged members to use death threats, beatings, guns and explosives against the Kingsmen.

“The Chosen Few are in a violent war with the Kingsmen, and it promised to get a lot more violent,” Jancewicz said. “The latest incident on Friday made us move more quickly to take the case down because we were worried about an explosion of violence.”

While violence between the Chosen Few and the Kingsmen dates back to at least 1997, when a shootout occurred at a West Seneca tavern, Jancewicz said the rivalry really began to heat up last August.

After several incidents between the two gangs, Chosen Few member Michael Segool talked about extreme violence against one Kingsman, just after a meeting that federal agents recorded in January.

“We break every one of his fingers, we break his hands, we break his [expletive] legs, everything,” Segool said, according to court papers. “ ’Cause . . . the only way he’s gonna stop is if you crip him so bad.”

“Something’s got to be done with these guys,” Koschtschuk allegedly told members at that day’s meeting.

Members and associates of the Kingsmen have created trouble, too. Last Friday, Depew police arrested two alleged Kingsmen, after almost a dozen shots were fired at the Chosen Few clubhouse with an assault rifle believed to be an AK-47. The shots apparently were fired just a few minutes after midnight.

“There were no persons present in the building, as it turned out,” Mediak said. “They just drove by and sprayed the front of the building, as well as some windows and doorways.”

Officers charged William R. Slater, 47, of Depew, and Robert L. Salczynski, 46, of Kenmore, with criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief, according to police reports.

A similar incident occurred last Aug. 9, when someone in a passing pickup truck fired shots at the clubhouse. No arrests have been made in that incident, but other officials have said Chosen Few members believe that incident was connected to their feud with the Kingsmen.


Continued...

[samanthajane13]

Depew Police Chief Thomas Domino said many people who live near the clubhouse have complained about the noise and traffic violations from Chosen Few motorcycles but are afraid to push the issue.

Main Street in Depew is more run-down and less vibrant than many village main streets. It’s dotted with modest homes, an old yellow-brick apartment house, one boarded-up and burned-out house and some commercial buildings with For Sale signs.

This is not Main Street U.S.A.

Reaction to the Chosen Few was mixed Thursday afternoon among the neighbors and people walking by the clubhouse.

“In the summer, it was loud because of their bikes,” said Lia Knoer, 20, who lives two doors away. “Other than that, they were nice. They really did keep to themselves. You can understand why.”

But that seemed to be a minority view. Others seemed less worried about the motorcycle roars and more concerned about the violence, especially the drive-by shots fired last week.

“I was at my friend’s home, I heard the shots, and it freaked everyone out,” said Catie Kotowski, 15, who stays in a house near the clubhouse. “It’s just unsafe here.

“The Chosen Few brings a whole different personality to Main Street,” Catie added. “They’re a gang, basically. With all the drama they cause, I think if they were gone, it would be a lot better.”

Her friend, Shannon Bartz, 15, lives a few doors away and across the street.

“It’s unsafe for all the kids around here, with the shootings and the violence they cause,” Shannon said.

Another neighbor refused to talk with a reporter.

“I ain’t getting shot for nobody,” the middle-aged man said.

Police said six illegal guns were recovered Thursday from the walk-in vault at the clubhouse. Three other illegal guns — two of them illegally modified to make them fully automatic — were found in Koschtschuk’s Alden home.

Assistant U. S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce identified the following defendants in addition to Koschtschuk and Segool, 25, of Buffalo:

Alan Segool, 48, of West Falls; James Lathrop, 56, of Alden; Bradley Beutler, 36, of Depew; Clyde Utz, 50, of Alden; Brion Murphy, 52, of Attica; Gerald Rogacki, 47, of Alden; Matthew Watkins, 33, of Elmira Heights; Dennis Rogowski, 43, of Cheektowaga; Norman Herzog, 43, of Lackawanna; Lionel Carter, 53, of Belmont; Gary Phillians, 44, of Angola; Paul Roorda, 48, of Buffalo; Robert Treadway, 41, of Depew; Martin Whiteford, 37, of West Seneca; Charles Kuznicki, 38, of East Aurora; Robert Geiger, 42, of Medina; Donald Diana, 47, of Depew; and Robert Summerville, 46, of East Aurora.

Geiger, who wore a big tattoo with the words “Trust No One” on his forearm, was identified by police as a state corrections officer. Alan Segool was identified as a former Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority police officer who now — like Koschtschuk — works for the Thruway Authority.

The Safe Streets Task Force is made up of investigators from the FBI, State Police, the U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, Buffalo police, Amherst police, Cheektowaga police, the Erie County Probation Department and the state Parole Division.

Bennett also thanked Lancaster police, Depew police and other agencies that supplied officers for Thursday morning’s arrest raids.

A large number of friends and family members came to federal court to support the defendants Thursday, and two of them spoke to The Buffalo News in defense of the men.

“They’re all good guys. A lot of them are educated and have phenomenal jobs,” said one of the women, who identified herself as Beutler’s fiancee but would not give her name. “They live, eat and sleep for their motorcycles [but] they aren’t criminals. I had 10 cops pointing guns at me and my daughter’s heads at 6:01 in the morning.”

“Why aren’t the Kingsmen here?” said the other women, who also declined to give her name. “The Kingsmen have done a lot of things that weren’t retaliated for.”

Authorities said they have charged Kingsmen members in several incidents and the investigation is still continuing. Attorney Paul J. Cambria said he spoke to Koschtschuk after his arrest and may represent him.

Jancewicz said there are about 25 Chosen Few members in Western New York and about 50 Kingsmen.


http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/664814.html?imw=Y