November 21, 2022 — The president of the Providence Pagan’s Motorcycle Club will be staying as a guest of the government for the next decade. Rhode Island biker boss Deric (Big Tuna) McGuire pleaded guilty to federal drug and racketeering charges and was sentenced to serve 10 years behind bars last month.
The 38-year old Big Tuna McGuire was the No. 1 defendant in 2018’s Operation Patched Out case, targeting the Pagan’s expansion into the Providence area and resulting in the arrests of more than 50 people. McGuire had patched over his Thug Riders MC to the Pagan’s organization a year prior and opened up Rhode Island’s first Pagan’s chapter in Woonsocket.
Beginning in 2017, the Pagan’s launched the so-called “Blue Wave,” an effort by the club to expand throughout the east coast, west coast and southwest. Traditionally, the club’s powerbases have been in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and parts of New York.
McGuire’s attorneys got incriminating wire-taps with McGuire’s voice on them kicked from court in the Operation Patched Out case because of a bad warrant. He violated his bond and was jailed earlier this year after the FBI surveilled his attendance at a clubhouse opening ceremony in Cumberland, Rhode Island during the 2021 holiday season.