Outlaws Motorcycle Club president, 2 others charged with possessing guns

The international president of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club and two other motorcycle club members were arrested Thursday by federal agents, and their arrests have implications for the upcoming trial of a Cheektowaga strip club owner.

John Ermin, who has been identified by prosecutors as general manager of Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club, was charged with possessing firearms while being a user of controlled substances.

Agents seized 15 firearms and marijuana while executing a search warrant Thursday at his home in Lancaster.

Pharaoh’s was not mentioned during the initial federal court appearances of the three men.

But federal prosecutors have said in previous court filings that the Outlaws Motorcycle Club provides security at Pharaoh’s, a Cheektowaga strip club owned by Peter Gerace Jr.

Gerace is awaiting trial on charges of bribing a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and witness tampering.

Gerace’s charges include maintaining Pharaoh’s as a drug-involved premises where vulnerable young women were exploited through their drug addictions and coerced into engaging in commercial sex acts with him, his friends and associates.

Retired DEA agent Joseph Bongiovanni is awaiting trial with Gerace on charges of accepting more than $250,000 in bribes from Gerace and other drug dealers who he thought were associated with Italian organized crime.

The case, which began as early as 2018 as an investigation of alleged associates or members of the Buffalo Mafia, has included the suicide of State Supreme Court Justice John Michalski, who was called an “unindicted co-conspirator” in Gerace’s sex trafficking; the drug overdose death in Wellsville of former Pharaoh’s dancer Crystal Quinn, who was expected to reluctantly testify against Gerace; dead rats found on cars owned by the mother of a witness; accusations of witness tampering against Gerace; the arrest of an Amherst police detective accused of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Gerace; and a failed attempt by prosecutors to have the trial moved to Rochester.

The indictment of Gerace said he “employs topless dancers, bartenders, bouncers, managers, and kitchen staff at Pharaoh’s where food, beverages, and dances with topless dancers are sold to patrons. Several of Gerace’s male employees at Pharaoh’s are members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.”

“Law enforcement considers the Outlaws MC to be a dangerous and violent criminal organization, and there have historically been a myriad of Outlaws MC prosecutions nationally … including a murder at a strip club,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi wrote in court documents.

Also arraigned Thursday on charges of possession of a firearm by a user of controlled substances were: Michael Roncone, president of the Rare Breed Motorcycle Club, based in Wellsville, which federal agents said supports the Outlaws Motorcycle Club; and Scott J. Barnes, a convicted felon who agents said has been living at the Outlaws clubhouse on Northumberland Avenue in Buffalo since they began surveilling it on Nov. 6.

FBI agents said they seized cocaine and marijuana, plus 29 firearms while executing search warrants at Roncone’s home in Lancaster and the Rare Breed clubhouse in Wellsville on Thursday.

On Thursday, they seized a loaded pistol near where Barnes has been sleeping in the clubhouse, agents said.

Barnes was convicted at a general court-martial of possessing LSD and sentenced to four years in confinement, according to the FBI.

U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. ordered the three defendants detained pending their detention hearings on Tuesday.

The criminal complaint against Ermin described him as the most powerful member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, saying he has the ability to command legions of members and associates of the club and has considerable influence over support clubs loyal to the Outlaws.

The Outlaws Motorcycle Club has maintained a presence in the Buffalo area and has been “the dominant 1% biker club in the region.”

The 1% label refers to a decades-old American Motorcycle Association claim that 99% of motorcyclists are law-abiding citizens and 1% are not.” That led to the term of “1% biker club” to describe outlaw motorcycle clubs and their members.

The complaint against Ermin says the Outlaws Motorcycle Club maintains a clubhouse that has been active in Buffalo for decades, and it is a location where there have been numerous reports of drug use and distribution over the years.

At Thursday’s court appearance, Tripi said federal agents executed five search warrants and collected hundreds of items, including a human skull.

Tripi and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas T. Cooper pressed for all three to be detained ahead of their detention hearings, citing, among other reasons, the threat they pose to injure or intimidate witnesses or jurors and also to obstruct justice.

“We don’t want the defendant out,” Tripi told Schroeder about Roncone, the first of the three to appear before the judge.

Since January, when the government began producing evidence to the defense in the Pharaoh’s case, acts of witness tampering have increased, Tripi said in a court filing last month.

Victims and witnesses in the Pharaoh’s case have reported multiple instances of witness tampering, Tripi has said in court. He has cited two incidents involving dead rats placed at a residence associated with a potential government witness.

Schroeder initially said he was not inclined to detain the three men. But after an agitated exchange with Tripi and then a brief recess during the proceeding, the judge returned and cited a section of federal law that said a defendant “shall be detained” if the government or defendant seeks a continuance.

“I treat the word ‘shall’ as being a mandate to detain at least until the detention hearing,” Schroeder said.

Ermin told law enforcement that there were guns and marijuana in his Lancaster home, and he said the marijuana was for recreational use.