MAHANOY CITY – Two members of a motorcycle club were convicted on federal charges, accused of orchestrating several “brutal home-invasion armed robberies,” including one in our area.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said this week that Steven Wong, 43, of Shallotte, North Carolina, and Solomon Rodriguez, 34, of Reading, were convicted on federal Hobbs Act robbery, conspiracy and attempt to commit thereof, firearms conspiracy, and more following a two week trial.
Wong was the president of the Schuylkill County chapter of the Infamous Ryders Motorcycle Club and Rodriguez was a member.
U.S. Attorney Gerard Karam said Wong used his position to recruit members of the club to participate in a series of what they called brutal home-invasion armed robberies in Schuylkill and Berks Counties in 2020.
One of those, according to court documents, happened in Mahanoy City on August 30.
The men broke into a home and swiped cash and controlled substances, displaying firearms and threatening violence in the act.
Another happened in Schuylkill Haven the day before.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the robberies targeted street-level local drug dealers and involved the use of a fully-automatic AR-15.
Wong, they said, rewarded loyal members with money and drugs.
“This group acted with extreme violence, invading people’s homes with machine guns drawn, and committing crimes that brutalized their victims,” said Eric DeGree, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Philadelphia Field Division. “Though our cooperative efforts with the Pennsylvania State police and local police departments, we successfully brought these criminals to justice and ended their trail of crimes, making our communities safer again.”
In this case, the maximum penalty is life imprisonment. A sentence following a finding of guilt is imposed by the Judge after consideration of the applicable federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
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