Forty alleged members of Aryan Brotherhood indicted across nation

Friday, October 18th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Seeking to halt the expanding influence of a prison-based white supremacist gang, prosecutors indicted 40 alleged members of the Aryan Brotherhood on racketeering charges.

The charges stem from 16 murders, 16 attempted murders and other violent crimes, federal officials said in announcing the indictments Thursday.

Thirty of the defendants are currently serving time in prisons around the country for other offenses. Eight were arrested Thursday in California, Florida, and Louisiana, while two remain at large, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

The 10-count indictment alleges that members of the Aryan Brotherhood murdered and attempted to murder to control drug trafficking, gambling and extortion in the federal and California state prison systems, Mrozek said. The indictment follows a six-year investigation.

Some of the indictments involved murders of black inmates as part of what officials called ``an Aryan Brotherhood race war.'' But overall the group is more criminal than ideological, Mrozek said.

Two Hispanic inmates arrested Thursday were also members of the so-called Mexican Mafia, Mrozek said. The Aryan Brotherhood, which was founded by white inmates in California in 1964, has expanded its operations in recent years, he said.

``Part of the reason we went after them, we saw them attempting and in some ways achieving an expansion of their power outside of prison walls,'' Mrozek said.

In addition to the arrests, officials executed 80 search warrants at residences, offices and prison cells in California, Louisiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Colorado, Massachusetts, Florida, Washington, Nebraska, Connecticut and New York.

The indictment was handed down Aug. 28 but kept under seal until Thursday.