HANDING over a bloodied jacket to his terrifying Hells Angels cronies, Jay Dobyns’ heart raced as he described how he had gunned down a drug-running ‘rival’.
But the ‘kill’ was a mock execution, caught on camera for his new pals’ benefit, and Jay was an undercover cop who was risking his life to infiltrate the most secretive and brutal biker gang in the world.
SuppliedJay Dobyns, a now-retired federal agent, was tasked to infiltrate The Hells Angels gang[/caption]
GettyHells Angels are the most secretive and terrifying biker club in the world[/caption]
AP:Associated PressA massive riot between the club and their bitter rivals, the Mongols, left three bikers dead[/caption]
APMotorcyclists riding past Harrah’s casino on the day of the fatal riots[/caption]
While the Hells Angels have always insisted they are not criminals but rebels railing against a society, law enforcement officers claim that is propaganda which hides murder, rape, drug trafficking, gun running and extortion on a huge scale.
And when a mass riot between the Hells Angels and their bitter rivals, the Mongols, left three bikers dead and dozens injured in Laughlin, Nevada, in 2002, cops were desperate to crack down.
They knew that the only way to bring the Hells Angels to justice was to get inside their inner circle.
And the federal agent tasked with infiltrating the ruthless gang was Jay Dobyns, who has shared his story for a new Sky History documentary Secrets of the Hells Angels.
“My cover story was that I was a gun runner and that I was a debt collector,” he says. “The Hells Angels decided all on their own that I was a hit man.
“By the time I arrived on the Hells Angels’ radar they had a 50 year history of violence and intimidation.
“If the Hells Angels had discovered we were cops they would have drawn a straight razor across my throat.
“They would kill their own. If you betray them, if you violate their trust or their brotherhood, it doesn’t matter if you have a Hells Angels patch on your back or not, they will kill you.”
Mortal enemies
While the Hells Angels were predominantly white, the Mongols were mainly Hispanic Vietnam war veterans – with years of LA street know-how behind them.
Founded in LA as a rival, Mongols were the most violent biker gang next to the Hells Angels, and making them the mortal enemy.
GettyThe Mongols were mostly made up of Hispanic veterans who had returned from the Vietnamese war[/caption]
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police DepartmentIt was chaotic when dozens of Hells Angels ambushed a casino where the Mongols were staying[/caption]
APMembers of the gangs involved in the clash were led away by cops after three people died[/caption]
Fox NewsIt was the worst shooting inside a casino in history[/caption]
All hell broke loose on a biker run in Laughlin, Nevada, when dozens of Hells Angels swarmed a casino where the Mongols were staying.
Bullets were flying, slot machines were blowing up and the riot was filmed by hundreds of CCTV cameras in the casino.
Police later seized 14 guns, 107 knives as well as hammers and wrenches. One Mongol was stabbed to death and two Hells Angels died from gunshot wounds.
It was the worst shooting inside a Nevada casino in history.
If the Hells Angels had discovered we were cops they would have drawn a straight razor across my throat
Jay Dobyns
Jay Dobyns says: “The game changed for us after the Laughlin Riot because it made our investigation very easy to sell to the higher ups. The Hells Angels were operating violently with impunity. They needed to be investigated.”
So the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) set up the unprecedented undercover mission – Operation Black Biscuit – to target the Hells Angels from the inside.
“There’s been plenty of biker infiltrations,” says Jay Dobyns. “Never in the most notorious motorcycle gang this planet will ever know. People that do what I do for a living and treat it like a hobby end up dead.
“When I first started interacting with the Hells Angels I asked their leadership, what are my instructions if I cross paths with a Mongol? And he said their name does not cross our lips. They’re the girls. And it is your job to kill girls.
“As long as there is life on earth, the Hells Angels and the Mongols are going to be spilling blood.”
‘Incredibly risky’
You Tube/@A&EJay Dobyns says he knew what he was doing was ‘incredibly risky’ and could result in his death[/caption]
AlamyJay and his team set up a ‘puppet club’ gang known as Solo Angels[/caption]
The initial plan was to set up a ‘puppet club’ biker gang – Solo Angels – to run side by side with the Hells Angels in Arizona.
Author and attorney Kerrie Droban explains: “Puppet clubs are very valuable to the Hells Angels, because they already know they’ve been vetted. Maybe they’ve been to several runs so they know who these people are.
“So it kind of bypasses a lot of the worry that they’re going to be informants or law enforcement. Setting up a legitimate puppet club to infiltrate a legitimate biker gang was incredibly novel and had never been done before. This ruse was incredibly risky.”
“I understood that as long as they believed my lie, I was safe,” says Jay Dobyns. “But that if I slipped up, there was gonna be a price to pay for that.”
Jay and his team started mimicking what the Hells Angels were doing. If the Hells Angels sold t-shirts, they sold t-shirts, if they handed out support stickers so did Jay and his team, and they even threw wild parties and invited the Angels to be their guests.
“We ran an extensive street theatre operation,” he says. “Street theatre is where we in law enforcement would set up skits that appeared to be crime events.
“Selling drugs, buying drugs, selling guns, buying guns. And we would allow the Hells Angels to witness us creating inaccurate conclusions from accurate observations.”
With his innate ability to stay in character 24/7, Jay was getting closer and closer to the inner circle of the gang.
He befriended Mesa Hells Angels president Bad Bob Johnston, who started to mentor him.
“All you had to do was mention that name and it struck fear in people,” says Jay. “Everyone knew Bad Bob. He had a 25-man charter, a beautiful clubhouse. He would open doors for me in the Hells Angels world that I wasn’t capable of opening on my own.
“He was mentoring me. I said to him, you are one of the most powerful Hells Angels in America. Show me how to run a charter. Show me how to be the baddest biker on the planet.”
‘Attitude to women’
YouTube/InsiderThe Hells Angels’ attitude towards women worried Jay as he was a father and husband[/caption]
You Tube/A&EAn ‘excited’ Jenna Maguire went undercover to pose as Jay’s girlfriend[/caption]
But one aspect of life as a Hells Angel that Jay struggled with was their attitude to women.
He was a husband and a father and did not want to harm the women the Hells Angels expected him to go with.
He needed an undercover agent to pose as his fake girlfriend – and that was Jenna Maguire.
Jay says: “Jenna Maguire was relatively freshly out of the academy. She was highly intelligent. She had street smarts. But probably the biggest asset was that she was absolutely fearless.
“And so, I slowly started introducing Jenna and exposing Jenna to the Hells Angels.”
Jenna adds: “I wanted to try out undercover, and this was a chance to try and work some undercover with one of the agents that we all knew was one of the best at it. So, I was excited for this opportunity.”
But the biggest risk to Jenna would be the Hells Angels’ attitude to women.
“If you come to a Hells Angels clubhouse, you know certain things are possibly going to happen,” she says.
“Your body’s going to be treated like an amusement park, and by several members possibly. Sex could be consensual, it could be rape.”
Jenna was ‘trained’ by some of the other wives and girlfriends – walk a step behind your man, don’t speak when he is speaking, provide his food and drink, carry his drugs and his gun.
If you come to a Hells Angels clubhouse you know certain things are possibly going to happen. Your body’s going to be treated like an amusement park, and by several members possibly. Sex could be consensual, it could be rape
Jenna Maguire
But despite Jay and Jenna’s efforts, their story was being called into question – and there were rumours he was a cop.
At one point Jay, now 62, thought he was about to be killed, but he was offered a second chance. Give up his Solo Angels patch and wear a Hells Angels ‘prospect’ patch – which meant a year long probationary period before he could become a fully-fledged member.
“Now I was at their beck and call,” he says. “I had to be where they told me to be and when they told me to be there.
“There’s everything from getting that call to go to Las Vegas to kill Bandidos, to your phone ringing at two o’clock in the morning with a patch member saying, I want a chocolate milkshake.
“You better respond. You better react. You better perform. Because it’s all part of your test. It’s all part of your mud check.”
Animal innards to fake murder
As the secret operation progressed, the deeper Jay got into the Hells Angels’ lifestyle and the more obsessed he became with getting his patch.
So he came up with a mission that would prove his worth to the Hells Angels once and for all.
He told them that a Mongol was going to start running Mexican methamphetamine up into Phoenix, right into their backyard. And Jay said he would go to Mexico and kill him.
His bosses at the ATF were apprehensive – was this going to start an all out gang war? But Jay managed to persuade them that this was their best way to the dark heart of the gang so they agreed.
They took a member of their task force, dressed him in a Mongol jacket and took him out to the desert to fake the assassination.
A homicide detective used real blood and animal innards from a butcher’s shop to make the shooting look realistic.
When Jay showed the footage of the ‘murder’ to the Hells Angels and produced the bloodied Mongol jacket, he was one step closer to being a fully fledged Angel.
But while his membership was going up the chain of command for approval, his real bosses in the ATF were getting twitchy.
Kerrie Droban explains: “He was having trouble extricating himself from that dual life, he was living it and becoming it.
“The ATF also had concerns that he was almost at the point of no return. They were losing control of their operative.
“Then they were gonna have the problem of a biker war. What are you going to do about this? If a Mongol’s murdered, surely the Mongols are going to want retribution.
“What do you do when it’s a fake Mongol? How do you pull that off? “
It was decided to pull Jay and Jenna out and raid the homes of the biker gang.
Operation Black Biscuit led to the arrest of 36 Hells Angels members and associates, 16 of which were later indicted on charges ranging from murder to racketeering to drug trafficking.
But due to the investigation the gang were about to find out that Jay Davis, the gun runner, debt collector and hitman, was actually Jay Dobyns the federal agent.
And there was no plan in place to keep him or his family safe.
“The death and violence threats started flooding in,” says Jay. “You are going to run for the rest of your life from the Hells Angels. We know where you live. We know your kids go to school; we know what buses they ride.”
And despite the evidence many of the charges, including racketeering and conspiracy, were dismissed and the remaining Hells Angels negotiated plea deals.
The death and violence threats started flooding in. You are going to run for the rest of your life from the Hells Angels. We know where you live. We know your kids go to school; we know what buses they ride
Jay Dorbyns
“That was very frustrating for me and for my partners,” says Jay. “You commit two years of your life and the blood, sweat and tears to watch it fall apart on the steps of the courthouse.
“I wanted to leave a legacy and there is no legacy to leave. I wanted to finish with a reputation and respect and dignity and admiration and it wasn’t there.
“Black Biscuit has been over for 20 years and I’m still trying to get back to my ordinary life.”
Former Hells Angels president George Christie says: “Jay Dobyns certainly came closer than anybody ever has to infiltrate the Hells Angels.
GettyGeorge Christie, former president of Hells Angels, says Jay came the closest to infiltrating the gang[/caption]
“And what that does is it creates a level of paranoia that’s really indescribable. You start looking at your fellow brother and you start wondering, what’s going through this guy’s mind?
“Is he going to turn on me? Is he working with the cops? Is he a cop?”
“In the end, we’re nothing more than a speed bump in the history of the Hells Angels,” says Jay Dobyns. “And they ran right over the top of me and kept going.
“They’re bigger, stronger, faster than they ever been. We’re a part of their history, but a small part of their history.”
GettyThe club is still going strong – there are now over 6,000 members[/caption]
APMaurice Eunice, left, and Dale Leedom, right, were indicted members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang after the casino riot[/caption]
Secrets of The Hells Angels will premiere on Sky HISTORY on Tuesday 13th August at 22:00
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
