♪♪
-I was at the Flamingo Hotel,
working undercover,
trying to infiltrate the Hells Angels.
♪♪
And the Flamingo almost emptied out.
I was left to wonder, like, "What's going on?
Where did they all go?"
[ Engines revving ]
♪♪
-Ray Ray comes in with a group of members from the Flamingo.
♪♪
Ray had a ball-peen hammer.
♪♪
And he flipped the handle of the ball-peen hammer
and handed it to me.
♪♪
There was a drunk Mongol sitting against a post,
and he had a cocktail in his hand.
Ray, Mr. ex-kickboxer,
kicked the Mongol's drink out of his hand.
♪♪
The minute that kick happened,
it's just like everything erupted.
♪♪
[ Men grunting ]
[ Gunfire, glass shatters ]
♪♪
I'm in the middle of a shootout with a ball-peen hammer.
You know what I'm saying?
[ Gunshot ]
All of a sudden, I see this hand come around with a gun.
♪♪
I lunge myself forward.
[ Gunshot ]
I felt like I got hit by a truck.
I landed flat on my face.
It came out my chest,
and it blew the ink out of my tattoo.
I felt it, I smelt it, it sizzled.
♪♪
-Some of the major, most violent players
at the Harrah's riot were Arizona Hells Angels.
We had no choice but to investigate them.
But as I learned more about them,
I realized I was in over my head.
♪♪
[ Dramatic music plays ]
♪♪
-The game changed for us after the Laughlin riot,
because it made our investigation very easy
to sell to the higher-ups.
The Hells Angels were operating violently with impunity.
They needed to be investigated.
♪♪
-I've never spoken about my experience
with the Hells Angels before.
♪♪
Jay was already established as this guy in Bullhead City
who rode around on a motorcycle, in a tank top,
with a double ray gun because it's open carry.
So he had already kind of set up his persona.
-The initial plan of Operation Black Biscuit
was to set up a biker gang to run side-by-side
with the Hells Angels in Arizona.
-So the ATF sets up
a chapter of a puppet club.
♪♪
Puppet clubs are very valuable to the Hells Angels
because they already know they've been vetted.
Maybe they've been to several runs.
So they know who these people are.
So it kind of bypasses a lot of the worry
that they're going to be informants or law enforcement.
♪♪
-We had an informant
that made some introductions.
We extorted our way in to the Solo Angels motorcycle gang.
♪♪
They were a nobody club in Tijuana, Mexico.
♪♪
We set up a charter
entirely made up of law-enforcement officers
wearing Solo Angel cuts
with Arizona side rockers.
Now we were existing and living in their world --
in the biker world.
-Setting up a legitimate puppet club
to infiltrate a legitimate biker gang
was incredibly novel.
It had never been done before.
This ruse was incredibly risky.
-I understood that as long as they believed my lie,
I was safe, but that if I slipped up,
there was going to be a price to pay for that.
♪♪
We just mimicked what we saw the Hells Angels doing.
If they were selling T-shirts, we sold T-shirts.
When they were handing out support stickers,
we handed out support stickers.
They were throwing parties, we threw parties.
And we invited the Hells Angels to come and be our guests.
♪♪
We ran an extensive
street-theater operation.
♪♪
Street theater is where we, in law enforcement,
would set up skits
that appeared to be crime events.
♪♪
Selling drugs, buying drugs,
selling guns, buying guns.
And we would allow
the Hells Angels to witness us,
creating inaccurate conclusions from accurate observations.
We did a full patch ceremony.
♪♪
We told the Hells Angels,
"We're gonna put a full patch on this prospect.
It would be an honor for us,
for you to witness us patching this member."
Before we give him his patch, we're gonna mud-check him.
♪♪
"You're gonna see that we handle our business
the right way."
We want to put some stress on him.
-Okay.
-We're gonna let him believe
that he's being actually kicked out of the club.
We need you to play along.
We want to see what his reaction is.
[ Laughter ]
Ultimately, we put his patch on his back,
and the entire event was witnessed
by a dozen Hells Angels.
-Jay Dobyns had this sort of innate ability
to stay in character 24/7 and live in that world.
♪♪
He had the persona, the charisma.
♪♪
He really convinced the Hells Angels
that he was this person.
♪♪
He was courted by every chapter in Arizona
to be their prospect.
♪♪
-I befriended
Mesa Hells Angels president "Bad Bob" Johnston.
All you had to do was mention that name,
and it struck fear in people.
Everyone knew Bad Bob.
He had a 25-man charter,
a beautiful clubhouse.
He would open doors for me in the Hells Angels world
that I wasn't capable of opening on my own.
He was mentoring me.
I said to him, "You are one of
the most powerful Hells Angels in America.
Show me how to run a charter.
Show me how to be the baddest biker on the planet."
[ Engine revs ]
The biggest challenge, from my perspective,
is, "Can you be an undercover agent,
and in that environment, in that world,
maintain your dignity and your integrity?"
because it's constantly being challenged.