Outlaw biker club leader sentenced to 20 years in prison

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The vice president of an Oklahoma motorcycle club has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on drug charges.<br/><br/>Officials with the US Attorney's office say Virgil Earl Nelson

Thursday, May 20th 2004, 5:35 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- The vice president of an Oklahoma motorcycle club has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on drug charges.

Officials with the US Attorney's office say Virgil Earl Nelson is one of 54 people convicted after investigations into the biker club began in 1997.

Officials say Nelson was the leader of a methamphetamine ring run by the motorcycle club.

Court papers say Nelson ran the organization mostly from the shadows, using his wife and others to handle most of the methamphetamine buying and selling.

Nelson bought the drug from several "cooks" and then directed other Outlaw members to distribute at least 500 grams of methamphetamine from January 1997 to April 2003.

Nelson also pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in addition to the methamphetamine manufacture and distribution charges.