Already an Idaho inmate, white supremacist prison gang leader gets life in RICO case
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A leader of a white supremacist Idaho prison gang who is already incarcerated has now been handed a life sentence in a RICO case, according to the Justice Department.
Harlan Hale, a 55-year-old leader of the Aryan Knights, has pleaded guilty to participating in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act conspiracy and to committing a violent crime in furtherance of such activity, according to a news release from Acting U.S. Attorney for Idaho Rafael M. Gonzalez Jr.
Hale is already serving sentences for convictions in Idaho state court and in federal court in the District of Wyoming.
The Aryan Knights gang was formed in the 1990s and has “white supremacist and white separatist ideologies,” according to the release. The gang targets non-white Idaho inmates and has been involved in “drug trafficking, extortion and gambling.” The group is estimated to have around 100 members.
According to the release, Hale trafficked methamphetamines and assaulted other inmates. His criminal history includes an incident in 2005, when he briefly escaped from the Ada County Jail, according to The Associated Press.
“The life sentence imposed on this defendant recognizes the devastating effects that prison gangs, and especially white supremacist prison gangs, have on the rehabilitative mission of correctional institutions and individual inmates who sincerely hope to use their period of incarceration to successfully reenter society,” Gonzalez said in the U.S. Attorney’s Office release.
In total, 10 members of the Aryan Knights were charged in connection to this case and seven of those defendants have pleaded guilty, the release said. The remaining defendants will go to trial in October.
