DPS: Biker gangs stockpiling explosives, plan to target police in Texas
AUSTIN (KXAN) – Outlaw biker gangs plan to arm themselves with explosives and target police officers in Texas, according to a bulletin sent out by the Department of Public Safety. The alert, which warns police agencies from Austin to North Texas to watch out, comes just days after a biker-gang brawl in Waco left nine people dead.
Citing an unnamed informant, DPS said members of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club who are in the military are supplying the gang with grenades and C-4 explosives.
The bulletin said the gangs are “plotting to target high-ranking law enforcement officials with car bombs.” It goes on to say the members will try to run over officers at traffic stops or use grenades and Molotov cocktails.
The memo directly contradicts what a leader of the Bandidos told KXAN.
“How long do you think the Bandidos motorcycle organization would last if we went out shooting at cops?” asked Jimmy Graves, national officer of the Bandidos. “President Obama himself would send out the Air Force, the Army, the Marine Corps and everybody and take us out. There’s no way. We respect the police for doing their job.”
Specific locations listed in the memo list Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and the McLennan County Jail.
“The information remains unconfirmed, but we are sharing it with law enforcement out of an abundance of caution for officer safety,” the document said.
In response to the recent violence, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said his officers will be ready to head off any trouble at the Republic of Texas Biker Rally, which begins June 11.
“To anyone who’s coming into Austin, Texas, to ROT Rally, to cause problems: This is not the place you want to be,” he said. “Because we will be staffed up to 100 percent; we will have undercover officers in crowds. We will have eyes and ears in places they won’t even see us.”
The biker shootout in Waco is also having a ripple effect on another Texas town.
The Cossack Motorcycle Club called off its annual rally in the town of Mingus, west of Fort Worth in Palo Pinto County, because of concerns about “revenge violence.”
Law enforcement in Mingus will still be on alert in case die-hard members still decide to show up. The sheriff also asked businesses to close as a precaution, but some places cannot afford to shut down on a holiday weekend.
“A lot of the businesses around here they want to close, and some of them are going to close to be safe,” said Adriana Ruiz at the New York Hill Café. “But we’re going to be open.”
Officers also plan to shut down the road leading to the site of the canceled rally to keep people away.