Motorcycle gang members charged with murder, racketeering

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Several members of the Gypsy Joker Outlaw Motorcycle Club have been indicted by a federal grand jury on murder, kidnapping and racketeering conspiracy charges.

The U.S. Department of Justice says the gang has ties in Washington and Oregon.

The Statesman Journal reports that among those charged Thursday was the club’s national president, 61-year-old Kenneth Hause, of Aumsville. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Members are accused of trafficking methamphetamine throughout the Northwest, assaulting rival club members, attacking their own members and forcibly tattooing over the tattoos of ousted members.

Hause and five others were charged with conspiring to conduct and participate in a racketeering enterprise. Five others, but not Hause, were also charged with murder in the 2015 slaying of a former Gypsy Joker member.