Special Agent Jefferson ‘Chief' Bradley III - Dictaphone entry - Friday November 20^th, 2008, 23:49

So yesterday could best be summarised as Black Thursday, today its aftermath and I am pretty exhausted as I recline in an armchair with a glass of neat Glenlivet.

Well, we nearly lost not one but two of the SOG team in what turned out to be connected incidents, the common denominator being a group of dangerous criminals who appear to be members of a Los Angeles Chapter of Hell's Angels called the Sons of Twilight.  More on these ‘fine citizens' later.

So Thursday began with a chase of various leads.  Agents Devereux and Fost went to interview the source of the Venetta Davis investigation, Vanessa Thomson whilst Agents Pierce and Wilmot headed to the New Orleans Amtrak/Greyhound complex to find the locker our key fits.  Both turned out to be fraught assignments.  Let's start with Vanessa Thomson.

Vanessa Thomson, 34 yrs, Caucasian.  A resident of 4128 South Valmont St, St Charles district and a Sergeant in NOPD.  Our agents found her front door ajar and receiving no reply to their calls prepared to make entry.  Fortunately for Agent Devereux who was in the lead, Agent Frost spotted a tripwire over the doorway which turned out to be the trigger to a shaped charge of C-4 set at head height.  Frost retreated and called in the bomb squad who dealt with the problem. Agent Devereux was sent to hospital for shock but was back in action by the end of the day.  The C-4 was detonated causing partial collapse of the front of Ms Thomson's house but did not impact upon a grim charnel scene that waited within. 

Here Ms Thomson was found deceased - she had been subjected to extreme torture of a type associated with extreme hatred of women and dis-associative sociopathy.  The coroner's official cause of death was heart failure and Ms Thomson's residence had clearly been torn apart although whether this occurred pre or post mortem remains unknown at this juncture.  The case is being diligently handled by NOPD Homicide Detectives who, will no doubt be highly motivated in hunting down the killers of one of their own.  Agent Frost participated in interviews of some Mexican decorators who were working on a nearby house and this is where we caught a break - some Hells Angels (reports vary on the number of 1-4) were seen leaving the property around 8am in the morning.  These individuals fitted the description of the same men who attacked and hospitalised a security guard at Ms Davis's residence.

One of these has since been identified as Douglas James McAvoy, a former US Marine, dishonourably discharged after the second Gulf War conflict.  For someone of such a disciplined personality to have become a recidivist suggests serious mental conflict and as such makes for a very dangerous and unpredictable persona.  Anyway, he did stockade and penitentiary time, probably joining the Aryan Brotherhood during a year in California State Pen.  I am checking with the Prison service as he bears the teardrop tattoo that indicates he carried out a contract whilst inside for the AB.

As it turned out, Agents Pierce and Wilmot were to encounter McAvoy later in the day.  Their visit to the train and coach depot confirmed that the key found in Ms Davis's apartment was indeed for a locker in the train station - locker 312 to be precise.  It was there that they observed McAvoy although what or who he was watching or waiting for is unknown.  One thing is for sure, he was good at spotting law enforcement and is a capable martial artist, dealing ruthlessly with 2 transit policemen who Agent Pierce had requested detain him for questioning. 

As Pierce and Wilmot closed in, McAvoy's unpredictability manifested in its most deadly form.  It is as the old saying goes - ‘when cornered, a predator becomes even more dangerous' and McAvoy behaved as such, opening fire with an Ingram MAC-10 sub machine gun on full automatic - that's a cyclic rate of around 1500 rounds per minute.  It is possibly a miracle that in a relatively busy public place, there were only 3 injuries, all of which were relatively minor.  Agent Pierce was in fact the worst wounded with a serious graze that required hospital attention and a few stitches.  He is on medical leave until Monday but by all accounts is well - pissed but intact.  Once SWAT were on scene, a full search of the facility was undertaken which Agent Wilmot was a party to, but either someone dropped the ball on the perimter or McAvoy can vanish into thin air - whatever, he is still at liberty, armed and extremely dangerous.

Today, in the aftermath the team continued to work the evidence.  We now know the MAC-10 was used in 8 x ‘execution' style killings in 3 states - California, Texas and Nevada.  Most of these involve other members of the criminal sub culture - mostly Mexican cartel members and other biker gangs.  Agent Frost concentrated on tracking the vehicle McAvoy and his companions were seen to leave Ms Thomson's address in - a grey GMC Vandura van.  His efforts, initially unsuccessful paid off with footage close to the Greyhound garage where McAvoy was seen exiting the vehicle around 09:00hrs.

The afternoon took an interesting turn as Agent Wilmot caught up with DEA Agent Tavon Brooks who is based in the Los Angeles Field Office.  Brooks confirmed that he had met Ms Davis several times and that she was indeed researching and seeking an ‘in' to the Sons of Twilight.  They apparently own and run a neighbourhood in the Van Nuys region of the city, led by a charismatic elder - Elijah Caine (real name James Kimball).  DEA and ATF have tried to make cases against the gang whom they suspect of being guilty of drug, gun and people smuggling as well as being members of ultra right wing hate groups like Aryan America, New America et al. 

Ms Davis was seeking an individual by the name of Mark Chandler that she believed the gang was sheltering although from what or who is not known, nor how she knew this to be the case.  We believe this to be ‘Roy' - the inside source featured on the tape Ms Davis gave to Ms Thomson, subsequently handed in to Agent Devereux.  Brooks indicated that he had shared some intel that did allow Ms Davis to locate Mark Chandler who may be related to business magnate Simon Chandler, owner of Pyramid Shipping, the subject of the SOG team's recent failed stakeout operation.

Initially dismissive of Stenneau as a potent threat, Agent Brooks went on to speculate that following a step up in operations by Federal law enforcement in southern California and New Mexico, the group may have moved their smuggling operations to New Orleans as a ‘softer' point of entry and egress. He invited us to LA to see things for ourselves and potentially a meet with Elder Caine himself - apparently he ‘understands the game'.  Brooks also may have identified our GMC as belonging to Nikolai ‘Niki'Svensson - another Twilight soldier.  His last words gave me cause for concern - first that nothing had ever stuck to senior members of the Twilight Chapter and secondly that management within our Federal structures were ‘reluctant' to pursue this group. 

This sounds very much like the situation in Louisiana with Stenneau where money, power and influence put someone above the law. I fear that Edmund Burke had it right in the 18^th century when he said ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'. 

I state now, for the record - I will not be one of those so called ‘good men'...