BEAUMONT, Texas — A foreign national who founded the Romanian chapter of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang was sentenced Jan. 15 to 25 years in federal prison for his role in a transnational racketeering and drug trafficking scheme that included attempts to hire assassins to murder U.S. law enforcement officers and rival gang members.
The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces investigation that led to the conviction and sentence was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the U.S. Marshals Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations.
Marius Lazar, a 51-year-old Romanian national, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to 300 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Lazar was convicted Nov. 17, 2023, by a federal jury in Beaumont.
“Seeking to sow anarchy and chaos in the United States to advance a transnational racketeering and drug trafficking scheme, this individual and his fellow gang members attempted to place a target on the backs of the brave men and women in uniform in our country who fearlessly step forward to serve and protect their communities,” said HSI Houston Special Agent in Charge Chad Plantz. “Working in conjunction with our law enforcement partners both here and abroad, we were able to infiltrate and dismantle their scheme and extradite one of the ring leaders to the U.S. to face justice.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Lazar was a “founding member” of his local chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, a transnational outlaw motorcycle gang that was founded in the United States and is now active on six continents. Through his relationship with a fellow Hells Angels member from New Zealand, Lazar joined a conspiracy to purchase more than 400 kilograms of cocaine from a person in the United States, who the conspirators believed was a powerful drug trafficker, but who was actually an undercover U.S. law enforcement officer. As part of his negotiations for the cocaine purchase, Lazar also solicited the undercover agent to kill two members of a rival motorcycle club in Romania, and offered to supply the undercover officer with rifles, grenades, armored vehicles, and other military-grade equipment that Lazar understood would be used against police officers in the United States. Members of the conspiracy sent nearly $1 million to the United States, via bank wires and Bitcoin transfers, as payment for the drugs and murders.
Co-defendants Murray Michael Matthews and Marc Patrick Johnson remain fugitives.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Rapp for the Eastern District of Texas, Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe, formerly of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section and currently for the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Columbia, and VCRS Trial Attorney Jared Engelking prosecuted the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with law enforcement partners in Romania to secure the arrest and extradition of Lazar.
For more news and information on HSI’s efforts to investigate transnational criminal activity such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and transnational gangs in Southeast Texas follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSIHouston.