The Bandidos Motorcycle Club is now a nonprofit organization in a move to prove that it is not a gang or criminal organization,
the San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday.
USARG, the nonprofit corporation formed in March by the Bandidos national board, filed an assumed name certificate with the Texas' Secretary of state Office this month to conduct business as the Bandidos Motorcycle Club United States.
"It was announced at the presidents' meeting on January 28, 2017, that a nonprofit corporation would be set up and that all chapters would be entering into licensing agreements in order to continue to be Bandidos chapters," according to an affidavit.
The Bandidos was formed in the Houston area in the 1960s and considered as Texas' ruling biker club, the San Antonio Express-News noted. The group has been in the news for the alleged crimes of some members, but some chapters have conducted toy drives for children and motorcycle runs for charity.
In January, federal prosecutors in Texas issued a 23-page indictment against the Bandidos, accusing them of coordinating attacks on rival gangs, financing operations through extortion, shakedowns, robberies, and methamphetamine trafficking, NBC News reported.
The indictment detailed the Bandidos rivalry against a regional gang the Cossacks, that included the December 2014 murder of a member of a Cossacks-allied gang, NBC News noted.
According to the indictments, then-Bandidos President Jeffrey Fay Pike, 60, along with vice president John Xavier Portillo, 56, and enforcer Justin Cole Forster, 31, where charged with directing various aspects of war against the Cossacks.
Earlier this month, several members of Bandidos had their federal trials on conspiracy, racketeering, and organized crime charges moved from August to February 2018, reported KABB-TV. A judge ruled in January that several defense attorneys had to be removed from the case due to allegations of unprofessional involvement, wrote the television station.
The move affected six members of the Bandidos on trial, stated KABB-TV.
The Express-News reported that federal prosecutors filed a motion in mid-May to have Pike detained after charging he had re-assumed his post as president of the Bandidos.
"To re-assume the top leadership position of a criminal enterprise, while on bond for racketeering charges stemming from his leadership of that same organization, exhibits unfathomable disregard for the seriousness of the charges he faces," the government's motion said, per the newspaper.
"It also drastically raises the likelihood of his participation in, or association with individuals engaging in, criminal activities, and undermines this court's supervision and role in ensuring the community remains safe," the motion continued, per the Express-News.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.