Seven members of two California biker gangs have been arrested on “various violent charges,” law enforcement said Tuesday.
Five members of the Bakersfield chapter of Hells Angels and two members of an affiliated group were charged with multiple crimes, including kidnapping, robbery, and assault, Kern County Sheriff’s officials said.
Investigators said they arrested six of the seven and served multiple search warrants Tuesday morning, seizing 25 guns, ammunition, high capacity magazines, and gang paraphernalia. The seventh member of the gang was already in custody on other charges.
The sheriff’s office identified those arrested as Ricardo Alvarez, 42; Armando Villasenor, 55; Joseph Soto Sr., 57; Joseph Soto Jr., 33; Joshua Zavala, 31; and John Seeger, 57. Joshua Vaughn, 37, was already in custody.
Vaughn and Seeger belong to the Sons of Hell Motorcycle Club, which takes orders from the Hells Angels chapter, officials said.
KGET said that the five Hells Angels members were the entirety of the Bakersfield chapter.
The men are also charged with false imprisonment, criminal threats, intimidated a witness or victim, and elder abuse, the sheriff’s office said.
The arrests came after a joint investigation between the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Kern County Sheriff’s Office, and California Highway Patrol.
The departments did not provide information about what the investigation was about.
