BEAUMONT, Texas — A chapter founding member of the motorcycle club, Hells Angels has been convicted in a Beaumont court by a federal jury.
Marius Lazar, 50, of Bucharest, Romania was convicted of racketeering, drug trafficking conspiracy and military-grade arms dealing.
Lazar was planning to traffic hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from the United States in a plan that included money laundering, arms trafficking and attempted assassination of rival gang members, according to an United States Department of Justice news release.
With the help of a fellow Hells Angel member in New Zealand, Lazar joined a conspiracy to purchase more than 400 kilograms of cocaine from someone in the U.S. who they believed was a drug trafficker. This person was actually an undercover agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), according to the release.
Part of his negotiations for the purchase included Lazar soliciting the undercover agent to kill two members of a rival motorcycle club in Romania.
He offered to supply the agent with rifles, grenades, armored vehicles and other military-grade equipment that Lazar knew would be used against police officers in the United States, according to the release.
Members of the conspiracy sent nearly $1 million to the country by bank wires and Bitcoin transfers, as payment for the crimes.
The federal jury convicted Lazar of conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to import cocaine into the U.S. and conspiracy to commit money laundering, the release states.
Lazar faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office, according to the release.
Co-defendants Murray Michael Matthews and Marc Patrick Johnson remain fugitives, the release states.
The case was investigated by multiple agencies including the DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, United States Marshals Service and the IRS Criminal Investigations with help from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to the release.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement agencies in Romania to arrest and extradite of Lazar.
The case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces investigation.
