The Houston Chronicle reported police officials raided a San Jacinto County vehicle chop shop with ties to the Aryan Brotherhood.
Law enforcement officials arrested Matthew Follis, 38, Alexandria Holloway, 26, Shain Whitmire, 38, Everitt McAdams, 34, and Shasta Cole, 33 on Feb. 2 in an area northeast of Cleveland, Texas.
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Bryan Carlisle of the Montgomery County Auto Theft Task Force said all five suspects are allegedly connected to the Aryan Brotherhood, a gang active in Texas prisons. The auto task force took part in the raid alongside the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office and the Liberty County Precinct 6 Constable’s Office.
Officers wearing tactical armor and carrying rifles breached several buildings and camping trailers in the 400 block of Our Road in San Jacinto County. A police helicopter flew overhead providing air surveillance during the raid and an ambulance stood by in case someone was injured.
Sgt. Larry Allen of the Liberty County Constable’s Office said officers recovered stolen vehicles, firearms, marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, oxycontin and other narcotics from the scene.
Follis and Holloway are each charged with nine counts of vehicle theft, as well as two counts of possession of a controlled substance and felon in possession of a firearm.
Whitmire is charged with two counts of vehicle theft, while McAdams and Cole each face one count of possession of a controlled substance.
Bond information on the five suspects is not available at this time.
“Chop shops” are defined by the U.S. Department of Justice as “a building, lot, facility or other structure or premise where one or more persons engage in receiving, concealing, destroying, disassembling, dismantling, reassembling or storing any passenger motor vehicle part which has been unlawfully obtained in order to alter, counterfeit, deface, destroy, disguise, falsify, forge, obliterate, or remove the identity, including the vehicle identification number or derivative thereof, of such vehicle or vehicle part and to distribute, sell, or dispose of such vehicle or vehicle part in interstate or foreign commerce.”
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