As the last of about a dozen members of a white-supremacist prison gang was sentenced Monday, federal prosecutors say they felt like they accomplished their goal of breaking up a group known for its violence and drug dealing.
Jason Bates was given 46 months credit for time served by U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart and ordered released from the Utah State Prison in Draper. Bates was also placed on supervised release for 36 months when he returns to his family in Indiana.
Bates' defense attorney, Bel-Ami de Montreux, said the fact that his client faced life in prison at one point had been a wake-up call for him to change his life. "This is a new beginning for Mr. Bates," de Montreux said.
Prosecutors hope it will also be the end of the organization know as the Soldiers of Aryan Culture, which has been known as a violent gang operating within the Utah State Prison system.
Two years ago, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah announced a series of racketeering charges against SAC members. At the time, officials said they hoped to "pull it up by its roots and get it out of Utah."
"For the most part, we accomplished it," assistant U.S. attorney Richard McKelvie said.
SAC had become a concern among Utah Prison officials. The group was blamed for assaults and drug dealing from within prison walls. Key to dismantling the group was to target the top three leaders, including two brothers.
Steve Mark Swena, Tracy David Swena and Mark Isaac Snarr were diverted from the state prison to various federal penitentiaries across the country by charging them with racketeering. Snarr was sentenced to serve more than 15 years in federal prison, Tracy Swena received a 20-year sentence and Steve Swena was ordered to serve 12 years.
A lesser member, Lance Vanderstappen, made news when he smuggled a shiv into a courthouse holding cell and repeatedly stabbed a Hispanic inmate based on the man's race. Vanderstappen was sentenced to five years for the racketeering charge and an additional 20 years for the stabbing.
McKelvie said using the federal racketeering statute has proved effective in breaking up such organizations. In 2003, federal authorities used the statute to break up a group called KMD, or King Mafia Disciples, that was founded within the Utah juvenile justice system and was poised to spill out into the streets as its membership moved beyond cell walls. The gang was blamed for numerous assaults, home invasion robberies and a homicide.
Federal officials manage to get guilty pleas and move founding members into the federal system and "scatter them to the four winds" McKelvie said.
Federal prosecutors said they would consider using the same method to break up any prison gang that matures into a violent threat. Already rumblings among Utah prison inmates indicate some of them are scared they will be hit with federal charges.
"It's certainly on their minds as something that they don't want to have happen to them," McKelvie said.
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