Crime & Safety
New Grand Jury Indictment Against 15 Pagans
Gang headquarters at the House of Tattoos in Rocky Point now closed.
Fifteen members of the Pagans motorcycle gang were arraigned in the U.S. District Court in Central Islip this month on new charges of conspiracy to murder, extortion and illegal firearms.
The charges, announced by Justice Joanna Seybert for 10 members on Dec. 10 and the remaining five on Dec. 17, were added to those already facing the gang members following a Sept. 15 bust.
The county’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had been investigating the gang, which kept headquarters at the House of Tattoos in Rocky Point, for 21 months prior to the string of arrests this fall. Two ATF agents had infiltrated the group and become full-fledged gang members.
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“They became gang associates,” said ATF spokesman, Joe Green. One agent even rose to the post of sergeant-at-arms, the second-highest position within the local gang.
A tip from the informants that the Pagans were planning to kill several members of rival gang Hells Angels for an August 2009 beating of now Long Island Pagan president Jason “Roadblock” Blair led to the September arrests that spanned Long Island, New Jersey, Boston and Delaware.
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The New York State Police, Nassau County Police and Suffolk County Police assisted in the Long Island arrests.
Among those charged was John Richard Ebeling Jr., aka “J.R.,” past president of the Pagans Long Island chapter, overseeing the Pagan’s activities in Sullivan County, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Blair, who was also arrested, succeeded Ebeling in May.
Gang nicknames were listed for all of the defendants, including Hogman, Bluto, Hellboy and Pop Tart.
Robert Nardoza, spokesman for the U.S. District Attorney‘s office, said a Feb. 11 court conference for the defendants will be held in Islip to set a schedule of trials and motions.
In the present case, only three of the 15 defendants are out on bail. The rest, including Ebeling and Blair, are in federal custody.
The House of Tattoos remained open for weeks after the September arrests, but closed in November. All that remains are the double O’s of “tattoo” above the storefront and a for-rent sign in the window. Owners and employees of businesses on either side of the tattoo parlor refused comment on any dealings or opinions they might have had toward their former neighbors.
