Five members of a white supremacist gang based in Yuba County have been arrested in connection with a drug-smuggling case, Attorney General Kamala Harris said Monday.
Members of the New Order gang were smuggling heroin into Susanville State Prison in the glue strips of letters mailed to inmates with ties to the gang, according to drug agents.
Harris said the New Order gang was founded in the Yuba City area 30 years ago to promote white supremacy.
"One of the founders was George William Lancaster, considered the godfather of the white supremacist movement in Yuba County," Harris said in a news release.
Lancaster was arrested Monday in the case. In addition, Robert Harold Boyd, of Yuba County; Elissia Danielle Soito, of Marysville; Benjamin Leon Andrade, of Yuba City; and Mickey Ray Jeffrey, of Yuba City; were arrested and are being held in the Yuba County Jail.
Harris said a joint investigation was launched in November after a prison guard noticed a suspicious envelope sent to inmate Robin Conley Briggs, a member of the New Order gang. Investigators said analysis of the envelope's glue strip at a state Department of Justice laboratory confirmed that it was laced with heroin.
Investigators said they intercepted two more envelopes containing heroin sent to Briggs and inmate Scotty William Brendlin, a fellow New Order member, in late January.
Investigators said the glue strips contained almost a gram of heroin, which is worth about $500 inside prison -- or five times its street value.
"According to arrest documents, the drug shipments were used as barter or to curry favor with other white supremacist inmates from groups such as the Aryan Nation or Nazi Low Riders," Harris said in a news release.
KCRA
