By Ayala Ben-Yehuda
A former president of the New York City Hells Angels motorcycle gang has been charged with stockpiling a cache of 41 weapons at his Douglaston home and being part of the largest methamphetamine distribution ring ever found in upstate New York, authorities said.
Gregory Heine, 39, of 245-85 62nd Ave. was arrested Aug. 17 in Oneida County, N.Y. during a drug raid there, said Oneida County District Attorney Michael Arcuri.
Police at the time obtained a search warrant for Heine’s Douglaston home and seized 41 guns — 19 automatic and semi-automatic pistols, 16 revolvers, four rifles and two shotguns, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a news release.
Heine was held in Oneida County on the drug charges but was moved to Queens earlier this month to face criminal weapons possession charges, Brown said. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Heine was arraigned Jan. 14 in Queens Supreme Court, where Judge Steven Paynter set bail at $100,000 and ordered him to return to court Jan. 28.
“According to the charges, the defendant, a Hells Angels member and past president of the gang’s New York City chapter, turned his home into an arsenal by stockpiling 41 deadly weapons including rifles, shotguns and handguns, thereby posing a potential threat to public safety,” Brown said.
Heine’s attorney, Ron Kuby, could not be reached for comment.
Arcuri said Heine was living in Douglaston while on parole for a previous conviction. The Queens DA’s criminal complaint said Heine was convicted in 1994 of assault and resisting arrest in Manhattan.
Arcuri said Heine faced charges in Oneida County of criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal use of drug paraphernalia, criminal possession of a weapon and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. He faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison on those charges if found guilty, Arcuri said.
“We have not seen a lot of big distribution like this,” said Arcuri, who added it was “the largest crystal meth ring we’ve ever uncovered.”
The Web site of the National Institute on Drug Abuse describes methamphetamine as a crystalline substance manufactured in illegal laboratories. Inhaling, smoking or injecting methamphetamine can produce a highly addictive euphoria, the Web site said.
Arcuri said a pound of the drug was found in the room of a house in Oneida County where Heine was arrested. He said the ring brought the drug from Arizona and distributed it all over upstate New York.
The Hells Angels gang, active since the 1940s, counts 2,500 members worldwide, according to a December press release from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announcing the arrest of 55 Hells Angels members and associates in five Western states on methamphetamine and weapons charges.
Matthew Forsaithe, 30, who lives next door to Heine, said “he didn’t really have motorcycles around.”
When asked whether he ever suspected a cache of weapons could be stored next door, Forsaithe said “not in this community.”
Reach reporter Ayala Ben-Yehuda by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
