Motorcycle gang or ‘guys on bikes’?: Alleged Dirty Ones MC members appear in court
A seven-month undercover investigation and shooting in North Las Vegas led to the indictment of 11 alleged motorcycle gang members accused of racketeering, prosecutors wrote in court documents filed Wednesday.
A grand jury indicted 11 alleged members of the Dirty Ones motorcycle gang, based in North Las Vegas, court records show. Of those men, five had previously faced charges in North Las Vegas Justice Court.
Those five defendants — David Judd, Joshua Rios, Anthony Cooper, Casey Dunne and Salvador Ramirez — all appeared in District Court on Wednesday morning in front of District Judge Joe Hardy.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Madilyn Cole told the judge that she had filed motions to address the men’s custody status following the indictment, and the judge set another hearing in the case for Oct. 30.
The men who appeared in court on Wednesday are all out of custody on house arrest. There are pending arrest warrants for the six other men indicted last week — Ethan Cintron, Nelson Cintron, James Brooks, Christopher Ferguson, Dave Neubert and Shaun Long, court records show.
Defense attorney Todd Leventhal, who represents Dunne, scoffed at the idea that the men were in a gang.
“I’ve represented the Hells Angels, MS-13, those are gangs,” Leventhal said after Wednesday’s hearing. “These are just a bunch of guys rolling around on bikes.”
All of the 11 defendants were indicted on a racketeering charge. The men indicted on the conspiracy charge include Judd, Rios, both of the Cintrons, Brooks, Ferguson and Shaun Long. All of those men, with the exception of Ethan Cintron, also are each facing a charge of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang, court records show.
Other defendants are facing drug charges, while two of the defendants — Cooper and Dunne — are also accused of destroying evidence in connection with a June 2023 shooting.
Prosecutors are asking the judge to readdress bail for the men who are currently on house arrest. In the motions filed Wednesday, Cole asked for Judd and Rios to be placed on a $300,000 bail, while she requested a $20,000 bail for Cooper, Dunne and Ramirez, court records show.
In that motion, Cole wrote that an undercover investigation into the alleged gang began in December 2023, and lasted until July 2024.
“Due to these resources and investigative tools, multiple crimes were witnessed, or described, which were later testified to, including a shooting that took place outside of the gang’s clubhouse located in North Las Vegas,” Cole wrote in the motion.
The shooting centered around “some sort of dispute” between Nelson Cintron’s son, a woman and another man, according to the motion. Nelson Cintron was the group’s “arms/security enforcer” at the time.
Prosecutors said Ethan Cintron lured the victim, Jayson Lewis, to the clubhouse, knowing that his father and other members of the Dirty Ones were waiting for them.
“While Lewis began to approach the clubhouse, Defendants were armed and ready and began to ambush the victim by shooting at him and his vehicle,” according to the motion.
After Lewis fled, several defendants picked up bullet casings and hid firearms used in the shooting, prosecutors said.
Police first noticed the gang in Las Vegas in 2019, and members are known for wearing green, a Metropolitan Police Department detective previously testified to the grand jury, according to court transcripts.
Several defendants declined to comment following Wednesday’s hearing.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.