Power Trip
How I Accidentally Wound Up Running an Outlaw Biker Gang in Ohio
An undercover federal agent behind a massive sting operation that took down dozens of gun-runners and drug-dealers tells all
By Frank Dalesio, as told to Mike Kessler
I knew something was wrong the second I heard Willie Beard’s voice. For one thing, he was calling the landline; he’d never done that. For another, I’d gotten to know him over the past several months, and the dude was almost 100 percent night owl, but now he was reaching out on a Sunday afternoon.
This was December 2004 in northeast Ohio, up near Cleveland. Beard was a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, the country’s most notorious outlaw biker gang. I was a founding member of the Order of Blood Motorcycle Club, the first biker gang ever sanctioned by the Aryan Brotherhood, the country’s most notorious prison gang. As far as Beard knew, we were associates and friends. He was right only about the first part. The guy had no idea that I was also an undercover agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), let alone that I was running an investigation involving 18 undercovers from four law enforcement agencies in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Or did he know?
That’s the question that rattled around my skull.
“Hey, Junkyard,” Beard said. “We need to talk.”
“About what?”
“There’s something I need to show you.”
“What is it?”
“Not on the phone,” he said. “I had my car swept for bugs. It’s clean.”
Beard told me to meet him at the McDonald’s on Interstate 90 and Route 534 and asked if I could be there in 30 minutes — except he wasn’t asking.
I said, “Yeah, sure,” hung up, and looked over at my fellow undercover agents, Shorty, Brian, and Bailey. “This. Cannot. Be good.”
They agreed.
We slapped together a quick plan: They’d change out of their Nazi-themed biker gear — nothing’s more conspicuous than guys wearing SS lightning bolts and swastikas — and watch us…
