Big John

Arizona chapter of Los Payasos MC shutters after last remaining member slain, leaving LS chapter alone Submitted by IRONCLAD on Mon, Oct/10/2023 - 10:09pm Scottsdale, AZ - The Los Payasos Motorcycle Club Scottsdale chapter which was based out of an unassuming auto parts store in Scottsdale, Arizona has shuttered. Law Enforcement and OMG experts agree that the chapter which started in 2015 with the expansion into Arizona from the San Andreas based club has now gone defunct with the recent slaying of the last active member. The trouble began for the fledgling chapter when last year it's founding member and president, Leonardo "Mexican Len" Nunez, passed away at the age of 53 from a stroke. It's other members went into hiding six months ago after investigators dropped a bombshell list of indictments relating to narcotics on several key members, arresting five. Only two of the remaining members were considered active, Darren Lovell, 63, who experts believed had plans to rebuild the club when he was released earlier this year from prison and a prospective member on house arrest. It was believed that Lovell had the backing from incarcerated members to continue the club but that backing may have been all for nothing. On the morning of September 5th, 2023, Lovell was walking to his truck in his driveway in the Paradise Heights neighborhood, a blue van drove up and fired several shots from semi-automatic firearms, striking Lovell multiple times in the torso. Lovell was pronounced dead when first responders arrived. Law Enforcement still do not have a suspect in mind nor a motive for the killing of Lovell and the case is still considered active. "Obviously—you know— we're happy to see an organized group like this off the streets... but it's always better when you're the one putting on the cuffs," Detective John Byers of Scottsdale PD said when asked about the news of the club folding. Residents of Scottsdale were no strangers to the aging gangsters on wheels, as they've dealt with Payasos since their inception in 2015 when then president of the Senora chapter in San Andreas was reportedly seen riding around the party city. Scottsdale Police Department confirmed that Bruce Rogers, 42, met with a Los Payasos nomad, Leonardo Nunez, multiple times during his visit. “We’re always keeping tabs on people of interest in relation to motorcycle gangs. We were tipped off by deputies in San Andreas and kept an eye on him while he was in Scottsdale,” said Officer Hamilton of the Scottsdale Police Gang Task Force at the time in 2015. Authorities alleged that Rogers had given the go ahead to Nunez to set up his own chapter in Scottsdale. Nunez, then 45, was known to police as he had been arrested in 2009 for armed robbery. He served five years of his seven year sentence. Los Payasos, a one percenter club, originally founded in 2001 by Wayne Mackey, was quickly becoming a dominant club in San Andreas. Los Payasos’ total membership is unknown but experts have thought it to be just over twenty-five total members. The club was formed when Road Warriors Motorcycle Club and Wild Coyotes Motorcycle Club, unanimously voted to merge under Mackey. The name Los Payasos is based off the small desert town in San Andreas where both clubs met to drop their old colors and finalize the merger. Between 2001 and 2012, Los Payasos had kept a relatively low profile to the public and law enforcement. No major incidents by members of Los Payasos were reported to police except for a small scuffle at a patched member’s home in 2008 which resulted in two arrests, one for an outstanding warrant and the other for possession of an illegal firearm. In December of 2012, Mackey passed away due to colon cancer. With the club’s hierarchy aging and membership dwindling, patched members voted in Bruce Rogers as club president of the original Senora chapter. Rogers, in his mid-thirties at the time, had no serious jail time but was known to police. With Rogers at the helm of the mother chapter, he quickly went to work to organize the chapter in Scottsdale and a chapter in Los Santos, San Andreas. Los Santos is the only remaining chapter of the Los Payasos and is considered semi-defunct, with an unknown amount of patched members remaining.