December 18, 2021 — New Jersey Pagan’s Motorcycle Club leaders Larry (Savage) Ortiz and Junius (Jay-O) Aquino were indicted this week for assault in furtherance of the federal racketeering statute related to a highway shooting last year. It’s a six-count indictment that also includes narcotics violations. The 31-year old “Savage” Ortiz is the president of the Pagan’s Jersey City chapter. “Jay-O”Aquino, 38, is the vice president of the Pagan’s Elizabeth, New Jersey chapter
On October 21, 2020, Aquino was assaulted by members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club wielding baseball bats leaving a Verona, New Jersey tavern. Days later, Aquino and Ortiz opened fire on and wounded an associate of the Hells Angels riding his bike on the New Jersey Turnpike. That Halloween outside a bar in Elizabeth, Aquino and Ortiz shot at an occupied vehicle connected to the Hells Angels. <
An uptick in violence in the Jersey biker scene the past few years can be traced back to the launching of the Pagan’s Blue Wave mandate, an expansion effort aimed at growing the Pagan’s MC brand nationwide but starting in the Garden State. Since 2018, multiple assaults and shootings have been linked to the battle for biker supremacy in New Jersey between the Pagan’s and the Hells Angels.
ATF agents executed a search warrant at Aquino’s Elizabeth residence on November 5, 2020 and found 40 rounds of ammo and 50 grams of cocaine. Ortiz’s home in Jersey City was raided on November 17 and DEA agents discovered 300 grams of meth and a loaded pistol. Both Ortiz and Aquino face anywhere between 5 years to life in prison if convicted of the offenses charged Friday out of the U.S. Attorneys Newark office.
Photo courtesy of NJ.com