Bombs (Thrown) Away

movin' on up: Philly's Warlocks had flown under the radar until lately.
Photo By: Erick Regan

The Hells Angels get attacked while the Warlocks get served.

by Brendan McGarvey

An apparent plot to blow up the Hells Angels' West Philly headquarters bombed last Tuesday when a grenade that somebody tossed into the building failed to detonate. FBI agents, with the bomb squad in tow, went to the scene after being called by an unknown tipster but FBI spokeswoman Jerri Williams said they were unable to find the grenade. That was for good reason: Though the grenade was live, someone from the clubhouse had already carried it several blocks and dumped it near railroad tracks around 41st and Poplar streets.

The next night, more than 50 police officers and FBI agents stormed the clubhouse near 48th Street and Merion Avenue and took four Hells Angels into custody, then questioned and released them. Early the following morning, police searched the lot where they'd been told the grenade had been dumped. (It was unclear who told them.) With SEPTA commuter-rail lines closed down, they found the live grenade just 30 yards from the tracks, Williams said. It still hadn't detonated.

"The FBI wanted to find the device and render it safe to keep innocent bystanders and children safe," Williams said.

Many suspect the rival Pagans were behind the attack. Says one biker associate, the Pagans are "just pushing [the Hells Angels'] buttons now. They know the Angels won't retaliate … The Hells Angels in New York can't stand the Philly chapter now. It's about the pussification of the name. New York Hells Angels is going to come down and disband the Philly chapter. But after that, they're going to put the hurt on some Pagans. They have to. They have to show they can't be messed with. And the Pagans have to pay."

Warlock Crimes

It's a beautiful spring evening in Fishtown, around 7 p.m. on a Wednesday. It's almost time for "church," which is what Warlocks sarcastically call their weekly mandatory meetings at the biker gang's clubhouse in Kensington. The members, it seems, have quite a bit to talk about. A week earlier, narcotics agents from the state attorney general's office, accompanied by local cops in Philly and lower Bucks County, served sealed search warrants at 20 locations from Port Richmond to Bristol.

In front of the clubhouse near Norris Street, Warlocks are hugging, shaking hands and talking. One makes a gesture like swinging a baseball bat and the other men tremble with laughter. Some are wearing "colors" but others sport street clothes.

"You only see them here about once a week," says a thirtysomething woman who lives across the street. "They're always nice."

One insider says that since the warrants were served, however, some worried Warlocks have been wondering if someone in their crew gave them up or if government agents have infiltrated their gang. (In the 1990s an undercover ATF agent rode with a Florida chapter of the Warlocks and gathered enough evidence to send a group of them away on gun and drug charges.)

"When a situation like this happens, they divide up into small groups," says one biker. "Everybody gets paranoid. Sometimes they think they know who the rat is and the guns come out. Bang, the rat disappears."

The warrants raised a lot of questions and focused a lot of unwanted attention on the Warlocks, who, with the ongoing Pagans/Hells Angels feud, cruised below the radar.

The second biggest biker gang in the region, the Warlocks have long had a richly deserved reputation for gross-out behavior, barroom brawls, pimping out exotic dancers, producing local pornographic movies and dealing meth. But over the last several decades the Warlocks have aged and mellowed a bit. For many of them, it's all about making a dishonest buck using a level of sophistication not associated with their dirtbag roots. In the late 1980s, the Warlocks even had a direct connection with the Meija cocaine cartel in Bogota, Colombia. Now, they have a lucrative underworld relationship with the local Mafia crime family — one Warlock even frequents a South Philly mob hangout.

Law enforcement sources claim the warrants are part of an ongoing investigation into drug trafficking involving the Warlocks, a trucking company and a motorcycle repair shop. The attorney general's office confirms the sealed warrants are part of an ongoing drug investigation and sources tell City Paper that the presidents of the Philadelphia and Bucks County chapters of the Warlocks are also being targeted.