11 alleged Universal Aryan Brotherhood gang members and associates charged in Oklahoma with racketeering, drug conspiracy, kidnapping and maiming a person

TULSA, Okla. — Eleven alleged gang members and associates of the Universal Aryan Brotherhood (UAB) have been charged for their alleged roles in conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise, drug conspiracy, kidnapping, and maiming a person.

These charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams Sr. of the Northern District of Oklahoma.  The charges stem from an investigation by the following agencies:  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Tulsa Police Department; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division; Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office; and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury Nov. 5, was unsealed Nov. 10. Following are the 11 defendants charged in the indictment:  Anthony Ramon Hall, 39; Ronnie Dean Haskins, 41; Aaron Clay King, 31; Matthew Brian Wagner, 32; Richard Allen Roberts, 30; Robert Allen Paul Bryan, 40; Rodney Lee Broomhall, 37; William Benton Williams, 41; Kristin Michelle Bright, 31; Carl Matthew Smith, 36; and Timothy Duane Buck, 23.  All the defendants are from Oklahoma.

According to court documents, UAB is a “white only,” prison-based gang with members operating inside and outside of state prisons throughout Oklahoma.  UAB is a criminal organization whose members and associates engage in drug distribution, money laundering, and acts of violence involving kidnapping, assault and arson throughout Oklahoma. The gang was established in 1993 within Oklahoma Department of Corrections penitentiaries and modeled itself after the principles and ideology of the Aryan Brotherhood, a California-based prison gang that formed during the 1960s.

As alleged in the indictment, the defendants conspired in racketeering activities to advance the UAB enterprise. Racketeering activities included possessing and selling 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, and using threats, intimidation, violence and destruction.

The indictment further alleges that on May 2, 2013, Haskins, King, Bryan, Broomhall and Bright kidnapped and maimed a person to maintain and increase their position within the UAB gang. Following a direct order, the defendants held down a UAB member and placed a heated knife on his neck to burn off the UAB patch-tattoo because it was believed that the member did not supply and distribute drugs to the UAB enterprise.

If convicted, the racketeering, drug conspiracy and kidnapping charges each carry a statutory maximum penalty of life in prison and a fine of $250,000. The maiming charge carries a statutory maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of not more than $250,000.

The case is being prosecuted by John Hanley of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allen Litchfield and Jan Reincke of the Northern District of Oklahoma.

An indictment is merely a charge and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.