http://www.omaha.com/article/20100108/NEWS01/701089917
Friday January 8, 2010
Meth group busted; 'Skin' got greedy
By Juan Perez Jr.
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Call me "Skin," Jason Hawthorne said as he introduced himself in 2006 to an undercover agent at a Ralston sports bar.
Friends knew him by no other name.
He boasted about white power, showed off his white supremacist-themed tattoos and told the federal agent about his membership in what he called the Church of the Creator, a loose-knit, white-separatist organization.
As the agent discovered over the next three years, the 36-year-old Hawthorne, who had a shaved head and a hulking frame, hoped to create havoc. He wanted to make money running guns and meth, and he wanted the help of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' agent.
New details, culled from court documents and authorities, provide a deeper look into what feds called Operation Red Swastika — an undercover operation that authorities say disrupted a local methamphetamine and marijuana ring, led to the seizures of weapons and drugs and ended with federal indictments against Hawthorne and six cohorts from Omaha and Council Bluffs.
Some experts say the drug ring is part of a growing and disturbing trend: increased activity from small groups of white supremacists who thrive on criminal enterprise.
On Thursday, Hawthorne sat before a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Omaha and pleaded guilty to seven drug, conspiracy and weapons charges. It had been 11 months since federal agents and police SWAT teams arrested him outside a La Vista storage facility.
Hawthorne was the central figure in the investigation and the second defendant to plead guilty. Prosecutors said two more people are expected to plead guilty today. The remaining suspect is scheduled to face trial in 11 days.
Experts say such white supremacist groups forge bonds in prison, where inmates spread race-based ideologies and link with like-minded peers. When inmate members are released, they get involved in the drug and weapons trades, thefts and robberies.
"Ultimately, they are criminals," said a national investigator for the Anti-Defamation League, who requested anonymity to protect his ability to examine extremist activity.
Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's branch that investigates hate groups, said white supremacist criminals have been associated with identity theft, counterfeiting and violent crime.
"But methamphetamine production has come to be almost entirely dominated by white supremacists and their fellow travelers, which is a remarkable thing," Potok said. "It's very clear that very many ideologically driven white supremacists are, in fact, engaged in criminal enterprises."
Potok called supremacists' politics an "overlay" of their moneymaking motives.
"When it comes to business, they're happy to deal with minorities if they feel like that's going to make them money."
One large, well-organized white supremacist ring — the Aryan Circle — got its start in the Texas prison system during the 1980s. It claims more than 1,000 members spread throughout other states' prisons and ties to organized crime in the outside world.
Hawthorne's group "is an embryonic form" compared with the Aryan Circle, the Anti-Defamation League investigator said, but it shared a similar path from prison to the streets.
Local and national authorities say they've seen an uptick in criminal enterprises with links to white supremacist groups.
"I think the past year has been a record year," said Alan Potash, the director of the Anti-Defamation League's Plains States region.
Friday January 8, 2010
Meth group busted; 'Skin' got greedy
By Juan Perez Jr.
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Call me "Skin," Jason Hawthorne said as he introduced himself in 2006 to an undercover agent at a Ralston sports bar.
Friends knew him by no other name.
He boasted about white power, showed off his white supremacist-themed tattoos and told the federal agent about his membership in what he called the Church of the Creator, a loose-knit, white-separatist organization.
As the agent discovered over the next three years, the 36-year-old Hawthorne, who had a shaved head and a hulking frame, hoped to create havoc. He wanted to make money running guns and meth, and he wanted the help of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' agent.
New details, culled from court documents and authorities, provide a deeper look into what feds called Operation Red Swastika — an undercover operation that authorities say disrupted a local methamphetamine and marijuana ring, led to the seizures of weapons and drugs and ended with federal indictments against Hawthorne and six cohorts from Omaha and Council Bluffs.
Some experts say the drug ring is part of a growing and disturbing trend: increased activity from small groups of white supremacists who thrive on criminal enterprise.
On Thursday, Hawthorne sat before a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Omaha and pleaded guilty to seven drug, conspiracy and weapons charges. It had been 11 months since federal agents and police SWAT teams arrested him outside a La Vista storage facility.
Hawthorne was the central figure in the investigation and the second defendant to plead guilty. Prosecutors said two more people are expected to plead guilty today. The remaining suspect is scheduled to face trial in 11 days.
Experts say such white supremacist groups forge bonds in prison, where inmates spread race-based ideologies and link with like-minded peers. When inmate members are released, they get involved in the drug and weapons trades, thefts and robberies.
"Ultimately, they are criminals," said a national investigator for the Anti-Defamation League, who requested anonymity to protect his ability to examine extremist activity.
Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's branch that investigates hate groups, said white supremacist criminals have been associated with identity theft, counterfeiting and violent crime.
"But methamphetamine production has come to be almost entirely dominated by white supremacists and their fellow travelers, which is a remarkable thing," Potok said. "It's very clear that very many ideologically driven white supremacists are, in fact, engaged in criminal enterprises."
Potok called supremacists' politics an "overlay" of their moneymaking motives.
"When it comes to business, they're happy to deal with minorities if they feel like that's going to make them money."
One large, well-organized white supremacist ring — the Aryan Circle — got its start in the Texas prison system during the 1980s. It claims more than 1,000 members spread throughout other states' prisons and ties to organized crime in the outside world.
Hawthorne's group "is an embryonic form" compared with the Aryan Circle, the Anti-Defamation League investigator said, but it shared a similar path from prison to the streets.
Local and national authorities say they've seen an uptick in criminal enterprises with links to white supremacist groups.
"I think the past year has been a record year," said Alan Potash, the director of the Anti-Defamation League's Plains States region.
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