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By Buzz Trexler

Star Correspondent

State law enforcement agencies carried out a monthslong methamphetamine investigation that has resulted in 15 indictments, including two people tied to the Pagan’s Motorcycle Club, according to a Thursday release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

According to the release, special agents in TBI’s Drug Investigation Division and agents with the 5th Judicial District Drug Task Force in December began investigating the sale of large quantities of methamphetamine in Knox County and surrounding areas. Along the way, agents developed information that Richard Carroll Baker, 45, of Knoxville, a member of the Pagan’s Motorcycle Club, was leading the distribution efforts. The release said another club member, Brian Batson Fox, 58, of Dandridge, and numerous other individuals assisted Baker in distributing illegal narcotics throughout East Tennessee. 

Baker was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to sell, deliver, or manufacture 300 grams or more of methamphetamine and three counts of sale/delivery of 26 grams or more of methamphetamine. Fox was charged with intent to sell, deliver, or manufacture 300 grams or more of methamphetamine.

Also indicted on charges of intent to sell, deliver, or manufacture 300 grams or more of methamphetamine were David Eugene Maples 45, of Knoxville; Joseph Shane Moore, 47, of Strawberry Plains; Larry Douglas Bradford, 53, of Knoxville; Erin Elizabeth Wright, also known as Erin Fleenor, 42, of Knoxville; Deidre Nicole Hood, 37, of Knoxville; Connie Sue High, 40, of Knoxville; Jill Marie Jones, 44, of Knoxville; LeAndrea Faye Osentoski, 50, of Knoxville; Alicia Mae Kristen Murphy, 37, of Knoxville; Bettina Clara Godwin, 41, of Knoxville; Charles Richard Robertson Jr., 63, of Knoxville; and Courtney Janene Lewis, 44, of Powell.

The TBI release said Knox County Sheriff’s Office, 9th Judicial District Drug Task Force, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are assisting with the investigation, which remains ongoing.

Pagan’s MC ‘Outlaw Gang’

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Pagan’s Motorcycle Club is recognized by law enforcement as an “Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.” A September 2020 report by the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation said the club was originally founded in 1959 as a fellowship of 13 motorcyclists in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The group evolved into a more formal organization in the 1960s and eventually joined other biker clubs in “embracing the criminal outlaw motorcycle gang philosophy.” The report maintains the Pagans are considered by law enforcement to be among the largest and most crime-prone outlaw motorcycle gangs in the country, along with the Hells Angels, Outlaws, Bandidos and Sons of Silence.

In April, a Wilmington, N.C., jury found Pagan’s Motorcycle Club member John Wolfe guilty on several charges, including first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit a felony, and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. According to media reports, testimony revealed the victim had been in an intimate relationship with Wolfe’s partner Megan Ball.

In February 2023, Christopher Lamar Baker, 49, a Raleigh-based national leader of the Pagan’s Motorcycle Club, was sentenced to 900 months in prison following his conviction by a jury in September 2022 for drug trafficking, as well as firearm and money laundering charges. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern District of North Carolina said in a release at the time that Baker was a “13” in the Pagan’s Motorcycle Club prior to his November 2021 arrest by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF). This designation means that he was one of only 13 national leaders.