November 2, 2019 — Boston biker gang boss Bruce (Monster) Sartwell, the president of the Brockton, Massachusetts chapter of the feared Outlaws Motorcycle Club, was arrested last week on federal weapons charges. Facing 10 years in prison, the convicted felon pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday. He was denied bond and will be cooling his heels in custody awaiting trial. On October 19, Homeland Security officers at JFK International Airport in New York intercepted a package sent to Sartwell from China containing a silencer. A subsequent search of his East Bridgewater, Massachusetts residence found an unregistered AR-15 with the serial number removed, a handgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition for assault rifles (specifically, of the AR-15 variety) and 20 hunting knives. Delivery logs at JFK show more than 60 prior packages being transported from Asia to Sartwell over the last 18 months. The delivery pattern coincides with rising tensions between The Outlaws and their arch-rival, the Hells Angels on the East Coast, a trend authorities root in a recent Outlaws’ expansion initiative launched in New England — five new chapters have opened in the region in the past two years, three in Massachusetts alone. Joseph (Little Joe Joe) Noe of the Brockton Outlaws was charged with the murder of a member of a Hells Angel “support club” in a bar scuffle turned parking lot shootout back in September. Midwest cities Chicago and Detroit and southern biker staple Florida have long made up the club’s power base. The Brockton chapter of the club currently headed by 48-year old Monster Sartwell has been its home office in the Boston area for the last two decades. Sartwell owns Pins & Needles tattoo parlor in downtown Brockton. His arrest record dates back to 1987.
