BY ABQ RAW staff
POSTED 09/08/2023 @ 5:30PM
© 2023 ABQRAW All Rights Reserved – Please Request Permission Before Disseminating on Other Social Media Platforms.
Albuquerque –
We sat down for an interview with FBI Albuquerque Field Office Special Agent in Charge Raul Bujanda on the recent raid. We covered the topic of the Bandido Motorcycle gang.
Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Albuquerque Field Office, and W. Troy Weisler, New Mexico State Police Chief, announced the results of a coordinated, multiagency enforcement operation across the state which targeted alleged members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
According to the search warrant, over the past four years, law enforcement officials in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma have observed a sharp increase in violence between the Bandidos and the Mongols Motorcycle Club. Most recently, in May 2023, in Red River, NM, several Bandidos members from New Mexico and Texas confronted a group of Water Dogs MC members. The confrontation was the continuation of months of harassment by the Bandidos concerning whether the Water Dogs MC had aligned itself with the Bandidos or Mongols. In Red River, Bandidos members surrounded the Water Dogs MC members, and three Bandidos members attacked a Water Dogs member. The fight escalated and two Bandidos members and one Water Dogs member were shot and killed. Five bystanders were wounded in the incident.
PATREON MEMBERS CAN READ THE COMPLAINT HERE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bandido-criminal-88989044
Following the Red River shooting, New Mexico State Police contacted the FBI and requested assistance conducting a statewide investigation of the Bandidos. Subsequently, in June 2023, the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Task Force (OMGTF) was created. The OMGTF is comprised of investigators and analysts from the FBI, NMSP, New Mexico Corrections Department, Albuquerque Police Department, Rio Rancho Police Department, Ruidoso Police Department, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, Valencia County Sheriff’s Office, Eddy County Sheriff’s Office, Otero County Sheriff’s Office and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
The OMGTF set its sights on the Bandidos, given the organization’s continued participation in murders, shootings, extortion, and other violent acts. It focused on twenty-five members within the New Mexico chapters who appeared to be the most criminally active and loudest voices advocating for continued violence.
The search warrant was executed on premises in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Los Lunas, Belen, Tome, Grants, San Rafael, Gallup, Farmington, Hobbs, Alamogordo, Ruidoso, Capitan and Arabela. During the subsequent searches, law enforcement officers seized 151 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, numerous ballistics vests, and fentanyl, meth and cocaine. A stolen police radio was also recovered.