The San Antonio-based vice president of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club was one of the groups top leaders arrested last month. He remains in the Bexar County jail because the judge says, “He is a danger to the community.”
John Xavier Portillo, the group’s national vice president, and national sergeant-at-arms Justin Cole Forster, both of San Antonio, were indicted in December, and arrested last month.
On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad has decided there will be no bail for Portillo because of a prior drug conviction. When they arrested John Portillo at his home on the south-east side of San Antonio, the FBI found three guns. Since felons can’t possess firearms, the judge said that was the “turning point” in his decision.
The 23-page Federal Indictment (attached below) goes into extensive details into the operations of the Bandidos organization. It lists multiple counts of racketeering, drug distribution and sales, as well murder, attempted murder, assault and intimidation over a six month period last year while Portillo was the acting national president.
When the club’s leaders were arrested last month, U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr. for the Western District of Texas said. “Today’s arrests have struck a significant blow to the Bandidos’ criminal enterprise.”
It details club activity as far back as 2013, with the declaration of war against the “Cossack” Outlaw Motorcycle Organization over Texas territorial “rights”.
Surprisingly, there are no direct mentions in the indictment about the firefight last May 17th, when Bandidos and Cossacks faced off at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco. Breitbart Texas was on that story within hours of the gunfire, and all of the details are available here.
The indictment does detail how, within a week, Portillo had raised monthly dues and support clubs would increase their “donations” to help pay for members to be bonded out of the McClennan County Jail.
There is a lengthy litany of violence across Texas against members of the Cossacks, including confrontations in Palo Pinto County, Zavala County and Port Aransas.
There are scores of other charges in the indictment, including the sale and transportation of methamphetamine across a wide area of the southwest, members from other states coming to Texas and acting as “enforcers” in the running fights against the Cossacks. One group of three bikers were arrested, and between the three of them, had a total of 10 pistols and shotguns and an ample supply of ammunition.
Since the arrests last month, national secretary Jeffrey F. Pike has bonded out of the Harris County jail in Houston, but Portillo and national sergeant-at-arms Justin C. Forster remain locked up in the Bexar County jail awaiting trial. Forster and Pike have both plead not guilty to all charges.
Rob Milford is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. You can follow him on Twitter
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