Blake Boteler is a retired ATF Special Agent and former petroleum geologist whose two-year undercover infiltration of the Sons of Silence outlaw motorcycle gang stands as one of the deepest and most successful operations in ATF history. His 1963 Harley Davidson and undercover jacket are preserved at the National Law Enforcement Museum. Craig Floyd, former head of the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial Fund, named him Officer of the Month in July 2002. This is the conclusion of his story.

Part 2 opens with Blake freshly out of an Iowa jail cell — bonded out by the club, carrying no weapon, and walking back into a world that was growing suspicious of how aggressively he and his partner were making buys. The episode follows his final weeks as a patch-wearing member through the operation's most dangerous moments: ordered by a national vice president at a biker rally to assault a stranger who had been photographing the club, Blake hits the man's whiskey bottle rather than his face and talks his way through the aftermath. He describes snorting gunpowder as a prospect hazing ritual. And he walks through the confrontation in a Colorado storage unit — national president J.R. Reed snorting methamphetamine off a Civil War sword, then turning to Blake and asking what federal agency he's buying guns for. Blake laughs and invents a fictional board name. The operation lasted days more.

The final numbers tell the story: 230-plus weapons seized, including over 40 machine guns, hand grenades, pipe bombs, and 21 pounds of methamphetamine. Eighty-five defendants ultimately charged. Blake also covers the aftermath — a federal trial he expected to win that ended in acquittal when a jury decided undercover agents should expect to get punched, and that same man shooting four people across two incidents in Colorado within months of his release. He talks through the $50,000 contract placed on his and his partner's lives, his family evacuated overnight from a Tampa home with Christmas presents still under the tree, and years of living under fictitious names in Virginia.

The episode closes with a story Blake told after the camera stopped rolling — the arrest plan ATF headquarters never approved: a staged car bombing, a real cemetery plot purchased in Colorado Springs, and a fake funeral designed to draw every outlaw biker in his network to a single location for mass arrest. Headquarters said no. What they did instead had its own complications.

The Sons of Silence are still active. Blake is still watching. A future episode will bring him back for Waco, Ruby Ridge, and the day he stood three feet from a fallen agent whose name is now on the National Law Enforcement Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

Learn more at citizensbehindthebadge.org.

Blake Boteler How did you get out of jail?

Blake Boteler The club bonded me out the next day,

Blake Boteler bonded both of us out the next day.

Blake Boteler But I didn't have my pistol with me.

Blake Boteler So now I was going

Blake Boteler unarmed the rest of the weekend.

Paul Boomer So--

Paul Boomer In part one, Blake Boteler walked into a

Paul Boomer Colorado Springs bar, told no one his

Paul Boomer real name, and spent the next two years

Paul Boomer becoming a patchwearing

Paul Boomer member of the Sons of Silence.

Paul Boomer Here's what being a prospect actually

Paul Boomer costs and how it ended.

Bill Erfurth And you're an agency while you're in

Bill Erfurth jail, especially with the lack of

Bill Erfurth communications at that time.

Bill Erfurth Like you say, it was probably just

Bill Erfurth pagers, right, beepers?

Bill Erfurth Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bill Erfurth They probably didn't even know.

Blake Boteler Well, actually, the one call I made from

Blake Boteler jail was to my supervisor.

Blake Boteler And I just called him.

Blake Boteler And I said, hey, man, I'm

Blake Boteler talking from a jail phone.

Blake Boteler So I can't really say much.

Blake Boteler Cole, who is my partner's undercover

Blake Boteler name, Cole and I got locked up last night

Blake Boteler by the state police for carrying guns.

Blake Boteler And he goes, is that all?

Blake Boteler I said, that's all.

Blake Boteler So he goes, well, I'll get you out.

Blake Boteler Tomorrow I said, no, that won't work.

Blake Boteler I said, the club's getting us out.

Blake Boteler We're in good shape.

Blake Boteler So sure enough, when I got out of jail,

Blake Boteler because there was a delay, Daryl didn't

Blake Boteler get out of jail the same time I did.

Blake Boteler But I got out of jail,

Blake Boteler there's a car following me.

Blake Boteler And sure enough, it's two ATF agents.

Blake Boteler And they waved for me.

Blake Boteler I followed them over to this hotel and

Blake Boteler they offered me a pistol.

Blake Boteler And I said, man, I can't show up with a

Blake Boteler pistol if they took my pistol.

Blake Boteler I said, so I appreciate

Blake Boteler it, but I can't do that.

Blake Boteler But those are the things.

Blake Boteler They knew we were in jail,

Blake Boteler but it goes back to what--

Bill Erfurth That helped keep your cover, I think,

Bill Erfurth concealed, I would think.

Bill Erfurth The cops didn't even

Bill Erfurth know you were a good guy.

Blake Boteler What?

Blake Boteler In one sense it does, but the other sense

Blake Boteler is, you show back up

Blake Boteler after you just got locked up.

Blake Boteler Every bad guy, when another bad guy gets

Blake Boteler locked up, wonders what he talked about

Blake Boteler while he was locked up.

Blake Boteler Why did he tell the cops?

Blake Boteler So here I come out as a prospect

Blake Boteler and they're kind of looking

Blake Boteler at me like, what did you say?

Blake Boteler And I don't wanna go over my time, but

Blake Boteler I'll tell you this one story, because

Blake Boteler this was in Humboldt, Iowa.

Blake Boteler All these motorcycle gangs are there

Blake Boteler flexing their muscles and showing off in

Blake Boteler the Sons of Silence.

Blake Boteler We're probably having maybe 70 people in

Blake Boteler this big campground.

Blake Boteler And there's concerts.

Blake Boteler There are these big bands that are giving

Blake Boteler concerts and everything.

Blake Boteler So as a prospect, I'm

Blake Boteler told, go over there.

Blake Boteler And if any patch holder needs you to do

Blake Boteler anything, you do it.

Blake Boteler So I go over there and sure enough, these

Blake Boteler guys from patch holders from Iowa and

Blake Boteler Indiana, see this guy taking pictures of

Blake Boteler him with a 35 millimeter.

Blake Boteler And they look at me, they all cross bed.

Blake Boteler Go take that fucker's camera.

Blake Boteler And I'm thinking, oh, great.

Blake Boteler So I have to walk over.

Blake Boteler He's about 30 yards away.

Blake Boteler I walk up, I grabbed the

Blake Boteler guy's camera, I opened it up.

Blake Boteler I exposed the film, climb it back down.

Blake Boteler I give it to him.

Blake Boteler I said, you need to

Blake Boteler get the hell out of here.

Blake Boteler And then I turn and I

Blake Boteler walk away and I go back.

Blake Boteler And then I look and the guy's, he's drunk

Blake Boteler and he's got this big bottle of liquor,

Blake Boteler amber bottle of some kind

Blake Boteler of whiskey and he's drinking.

Blake Boteler He's just staring.

Blake Boteler He's just mad now.

Blake Boteler Well, eventually I'm thinking, oh, dude,

Blake Boteler you got to leave those patch holders.

Blake Boteler They see him again.

Blake Boteler And they say, prospect,

Blake Boteler go clock that motherfucker.

Blake Boteler Which means I have to go knock him out.

Blake Boteler Well,

Blake Boteler as an ATF agent, I cannot go and punch

Blake Boteler somebody in the face.

Blake Boteler I just can't do it.

Blake Boteler But I know if I don't, I'm gonna get boot

Blake Boteler stomped right there.

Blake Boteler Those guys are gonna jump me in and I'm

Blake Boteler gonna get boot stomped.

Blake Boteler So I'm thinking, all right, I'm one of

Blake Boteler those guys I'm trying to think as I walk

Blake Boteler that 30 or 40 yards towards this guy.

Blake Boteler And I'm trying to look

Blake Boteler as intimidating as I can.

Blake Boteler I got my dark sunglasses on.

Blake Boteler I'm not a big guy, so, but I'm doing the

Blake Boteler best I can to look intimidating.

Blake Boteler And I literally word, run.

Blake Boteler I don't say it, but I

Blake Boteler say run to the guys.

Blake Boteler I'm getting closer to

Blake Boteler him, hoping he'd run away.

Blake Boteler But he literally just freezes with that

Blake Boteler bottle of liquor resting on his lower lip

Blake Boteler and he's just looking at me.

Blake Boteler And I walk up and I have a big three D

Blake Boteler cell flashlight because that's the only

Blake Boteler weapon I have left on me.

Blake Boteler And I think I'm gonna pull this thing and

Blake Boteler hit it in my hand a couple of times.

Blake Boteler Surely he's gonna get the idea to leave.

Blake Boteler Doesn't move, just sits there.

Blake Boteler And I can feel those patch

Blake Boteler holders eyes bearing down on me.

Blake Boteler And so I just rear back and I swing with

Blake Boteler all I've got and I hit that bottle right

Blake Boteler under his chin and it just explodes.

Blake Boteler And the guy fall back and I'm thinking, I

Blake Boteler hope I didn't hit him

Blake Boteler and I jump on top of him.

Blake Boteler Sure enough, he's got whiskey all over

Blake Boteler his face, but he's not hit.

Blake Boteler And so at that time, my partner's there,

Blake Boteler we pick him up, we shove him, get lost.

Blake Boteler Well, by this time, there's a thousand

Blake Boteler people out in this field

Blake Boteler with this concerts going on.

Blake Boteler They're screaming and running.

Blake Boteler Everybody's running all directions.

Blake Boteler Well,

Blake Boteler we go back to the campground and the

Blake Boteler national vice

Blake Boteler president, Terry Noley sees me.

Blake Boteler He goes, prospect,

Blake Boteler get your ass over here.

Blake Boteler And I'm thinking, oh crap, did they see

Blake Boteler that I didn't hit this guy?

Blake Boteler And so I'm expecting the

Blake Boteler worst, but he goes, good job.

Blake Boteler And that was it.

Blake Boteler So those are the constant challenges as a

Blake Boteler prospect, you're

Blake Boteler getting, I can't legally,

Blake Boteler morally even ethically go

Blake Boteler blast somebody in the face.

Blake Boteler But my other choice was just to start

Blake Boteler running, to run away and end

Blake Boteler the case, just end the thing.

Bill Erfurth You know, it's interesting what you're

Bill Erfurth saying, because I know that all law

Bill Erfurth enforcement agencies have parameters, but

Bill Erfurth there's always an

Bill Erfurth exception to the rule, right?

Bill Erfurth And especially we were told that if

Bill Erfurth you're in fear of significant injury or

Bill Erfurth death, you just do what you gotta do.

Bill Erfurth And I didn't, but I know of other guys

Bill Erfurth that had to do cocaine, lines of cocaine

Bill Erfurth and stuff like that.

Bill Erfurth And then after the fact, you have to go

Bill Erfurth to your agency and then you have to file

Bill Erfurth a use of a injury report,

Bill Erfurth so that it's documented.

Bill Erfurth So sometimes you gotta,

Bill Erfurth you just, it's unavoidable, right?

Bill Erfurth And you get really, like you said, you

Bill Erfurth get put in those

Bill Erfurth precarious positions and who knows?

Blake Boteler 100%, and you know, if you got stuck with

Blake Boteler that, if somebody's saying, you do this

Blake Boteler line of meth, or you're gonna get shot in

Blake Boteler the head, you're gonna

Blake Boteler do that line of meth.

Blake Boteler That's kind of an easy decision, huh?

Blake Boteler Yeah, yeah.

Blake Boteler I mean, they had me as a prospect, I had

Blake Boteler to snort gunpowder

Blake Boteler once, smokeless gunpowder.

Blake Boteler So they didn't put a gun to my head, but

Blake Boteler I knew, oh my gosh, it's gonna be a lot

Blake Boteler of, it's getting slapped

Blake Boteler around and beat around.

Blake Boteler And I'd never tried it before.

Blake Boteler And I said, how bad can it be?

Blake Boteler I'll tell you, that stuff's bad, man.

Blake Boteler I have heard that was horrendous.

Bill Erfurth Hey, I wanna jump in while we're still

Bill Erfurth talking about all of

Bill Erfurth this and the stories.

Bill Erfurth Let's talk about the

Bill Erfurth culmination of it all.

Bill Erfurth Let's talk about how you have rest and

Bill Erfurth the statistics and all

Bill Erfurth the good work that you did.

Bill Erfurth Absolutely.

Blake Boteler Yeah, and there's a,

Blake Boteler it adds up fast, right?

Blake Boteler So once we get in and I become a patch

Blake Boteler wearing member, you know, you have to

Blake Boteler fight the whole chapter

Blake Boteler to get your patch, right?

Blake Boteler And they drag you through a field,

Blake Boteler holding onto a rope in

Blake Boteler Sturgis, South Dakota.

Blake Boteler All these kinds of things happen to you

Blake Boteler as a prospect in the sun.

Blake Boteler So you're pretty beat up and bruised

Blake Boteler whenever you get your patch.

Blake Boteler And, but once you're in, then the door

Blake Boteler opens up, not only with other patch

Blake Boteler wearing members, but people outside, it's

Blake Boteler kinda like you're part of the, you're one

Blake Boteler of the families because when you hit that

Blake Boteler patch on your back, you can buy dope and

Blake Boteler you can buy guns from criminals and they

Blake Boteler see you're a verified criminal because

Blake Boteler you're a sons of silence.

Blake Boteler A verified criminal, I like it.

Blake Boteler Yeah, you're very much in their world.

Blake Boteler Yeah, you're a good criminal.

Blake Boteler And so you're out there and

Blake Boteler so we're able to buy things.

Blake Boteler My partner and I, in the end, I think we,

Blake Boteler between the seizures and the purchases

Blake Boteler had over 230 guns, over

Blake Boteler 40 of them machine guns,

Blake Boteler like half a dozen hand grenades,

Blake Boteler I think four pipe

Blake Boteler bombs, sawed off shotguns.

Blake Boteler I think there was 21

Blake Boteler pounds of methamphetamine.

Blake Boteler We seized a bunch of motorcycles and it

Blake Boteler was a large volume of things that we got,

Blake Boteler but a lot of them we

Blake Boteler would buy from associates.

Blake Boteler So, you know, when people say, well, how

Blake Boteler many patch wearing

Blake Boteler members did you arrest?

Blake Boteler And I can't even give you the exact

Blake Boteler number right now, but with all the

Blake Boteler associates and people on the outside that

Blake Boteler we were able to arrest and have arrested

Blake Boteler without them even knowing it came from

Blake Boteler us, I think we had like

Blake Boteler 85 defendants in the end.

Blake Boteler So,

Blake Boteler lots of federal charges, state charges.

Blake Boteler And it was very, very successful.

Blake Boteler There's none of the other, I mean, I

Blake Boteler can't recall a case it had purchased or

Blake Boteler seized more weapons than we

Blake Boteler did during our two plus years.

Dennis Collins That's how, did any of them, did they

Dennis Collins ever find out that you were a cop?

Dennis Collins I mean, did eventually?

Dennis Collins Oh yeah.

Dennis Collins Oh yeah, of course.

Dennis Collins And how did that happen?

Dennis Collins How did they find out

Dennis Collins that you were a cop?

Blake Boteler Well, I'll tell you, I'll give you a

Blake Boteler story right before they knew for sure.

Blake Boteler It was towards the end of the

Blake Boteler investigation, we were getting very, I

Blake Boteler guess, aggressive, you could say, because

Blake Boteler we were trying to make

Blake Boteler all the buys we could.

Blake Boteler My partner and I, Darryl,

Blake Boteler we had to sit down and decide

Blake Boteler when are we gonna quit this thing?

Blake Boteler Because there was no end in sight.

Blake Boteler It was how long can we go?

Blake Boteler We were tired, it was a strain on our

Blake Boteler families, our professional lives.

Blake Boteler So, we had a Hell's Angel, Jethro, who

Blake Boteler had used to be a Sons of Silence member

Blake Boteler that wanted us to come out to Orlando,

Blake Boteler over there in California, and wanted us

Blake Boteler to patch over, excuse me, not Orlando, it

Blake Boteler was, I forget now his chapter, but he

Blake Boteler wanted us to patch over, roll our patch,

Blake Boteler they call it, roll our patch to Hell's

Blake Boteler Angels, because he had some things going

Blake Boteler on in South Africa that he wanted us to

Blake Boteler get involved with him with.

Blake Boteler He was speaking to us at one of the

Blake Boteler parties that the Sons of Silence had.

Blake Boteler So, there was literally no end in sight.

Blake Boteler We could have rolled our patch and become

Blake Boteler Hell's Angels and gone on another year.

Blake Boteler But by this time we were buying guns from

Blake Boteler everyone, and I was then buying a machine

Blake Boteler gun in a storage warehouse from one of

Blake Boteler the main methamphetamine sources for the

Blake Boteler Sons, and I'm holding the machine gun,

Blake Boteler it's a Tommy gun type machine gun,

Blake Boteler and in walks J.R.

Blake Boteler Reed, the national president, and Frank,

Blake Boteler crazy Frank, he is an

Blake Boteler enforcer, but he's got a screw loose.

Blake Boteler So, he walks in, now Frank's got a big

Blake Boteler .357 in his belt, these guys hand sitting

Blake Boteler on it, and J.R. is snorting

Blake Boteler methamphetamine off this big Civil War

Blake Boteler sword, and we're in this storage facility

Blake Boteler full of stuff, right?

Blake Boteler And J.R. snorts that meth, and then he's

Blake Boteler holding the sword, and he

Blake Boteler looks at me and he goes, "Hey Bo,

Blake Boteler so for what federal agency

Blake Boteler are you buying all these guns?"

Blake Boteler Hmm.

Blake Boteler You know, and so here I was, I mean, this

Blake Boteler is literally, I've been a patch wearing

Blake Boteler member for a year and a half, you know,

Blake Boteler I've been undercover for

Blake Boteler over two years by this time.

Bill Erfurth And what was the degree of pucker factor?

Blake Boteler Well, it was huge because, you know, I

Blake Boteler had a .45 automatic on me in a shoulder

Blake Boteler rig, but Frank had his hand resting on

Blake Boteler his .357 in his belt, and

Blake Boteler he had crazy eyes already,

Blake Boteler and I'm holding an empty Tommy gun,

Blake Boteler basically, crashed the dope dealer guy

Blake Boteler that I'm buying the gun from, he's

Blake Boteler oblivious that any of this tension's

Blake Boteler going on, he's hopping around, so I'm

Blake Boteler thinking, "Okay, I'm gonna have to hit

Blake Boteler Frank in the face with this empty gun,

Blake Boteler and then deal with J.R. if he tries to

Blake Boteler swing that sword, and then get back to

Blake Boteler Frank," you know, and that's what flashes

Blake Boteler through my mind is all I have in my hands

Blake Boteler is this empty Tommy gun, which is nothing

Blake Boteler more than a stick, you know, really.

Blake Boteler So, but I look at J.R. and I go, and I

Blake Boteler laugh, and I go, "Oh, I'm getting it for

Blake Boteler the Firearms Reclamation

Blake Boteler Board," and just laughed, right?

Blake Boteler And, you know, I knew J.R. well enough to

Blake Boteler tell that was good enough for me, him, he

Blake Boteler understood that, but he was letting me

Blake Boteler know that it was suspicious how much

Blake Boteler stuff we were buying at that time.

Blake Boteler Oh, okay.

Blake Boteler So that, we knew, yeah, we're gonna have

Blake Boteler to shut this thing down, and we need to

Blake Boteler be really prepared to get out of this.

Blake Boteler So that was right towards the very end.

Blake Boteler We were getting front at five pounds of

Blake Boteler meth at the time from this dope dealer.

Blake Boteler So that was shortly

Blake Boteler thereafter that we did

Bill Erfurth the-- Well, and clearly then you had to

Bill Erfurth go touch the fly, and it all had to come

Bill Erfurth out in trial and

Bill Erfurth depositions and stuff like that.

Bill Erfurth Were you ever threatened by these guys?

Bill Erfurth Have you ever had any kind of encounters

Bill Erfurth with them throughout

Bill Erfurth your life since then?

Blake Boteler Oh yeah, I mean, you know, once they were

Blake Boteler in jail that night, they're sitting

Blake Boteler around, and everybody in the chapter

Blake Boteler sitting in jail except Bo and Cole, you

Blake Boteler know, were not in there with them.

Blake Boteler So, huh, the mass had enough, and sure

Blake Boteler enough, you know, when they were getting

Blake Boteler the affidavits the next day,

Blake Boteler our names are on there, right?

Blake Boteler So they know, and sure enough, it's

Blake Boteler public knowledge by that time.

Blake Boteler So yes, the death threats came.

Blake Boteler There was a $50,000 contract put out on

Blake Boteler us, and my family had already moved away

Blake Boteler from Colorado a couple

Blake Boteler of months before that.

Blake Boteler We'd moved over to Tampa,

Blake Boteler and so the family was already in Tampa,

Blake Boteler had already closed on a house.

Blake Boteler So we had tried to put it under a trust,

Blake Boteler so we thought we were

Blake Boteler gonna be safe on that end.

Blake Boteler But as it turned out, I went there in

Blake Boteler December, and there were death threats.

Blake Boteler They found me in Tampa, they called up

Blake Boteler and said, "You're a hard man

Blake Boteler to find, but we found you now."

Blake Boteler So ATF overnight moved

Blake Boteler us out of that house.

Blake Boteler And I say overnight, they said, "Your

Blake Boteler wife and your kids have to be

Blake Boteler out of that house in hours."

Blake Boteler So agents picked them up

Blake Boteler and they moved them out.

Blake Boteler There was still Christmas

Blake Boteler presents under the tree.

Blake Boteler I had to go by the house and get my kids

Blake Boteler Christmas presents, and we

Blake Boteler never went back to that house.

Blake Boteler And then they moved us up to Virginia

Blake Boteler under a fictitious name for almost a

Blake Boteler year, and then moved here, and actually

Blake Boteler lived here under a fictitious name for a

Blake Boteler number of years, the utilities, the

Blake Boteler house, and everything

Blake Boteler was under fictitious.

Blake Boteler Wow.

Blake Boteler So the answer is yeah, it's out there.

Blake Boteler And then there's certain members that

Blake Boteler were extremely violent and unhinged that

Blake Boteler were potentially come and get you.

Blake Boteler So, but yeah.

Bill Erfurth No more threats, Blake?

Bill Erfurth They've ended, they

Bill Erfurth ended a while ago, I take it?

Blake Boteler Well, it's hard to say what a threat is.

Blake Boteler I mean, there's certain members that are

Blake Boteler still out there that if I walked up to

Blake Boteler them and they figured out who I was, I

Blake Boteler think the threat would be alive and well.

Blake Boteler The one example I'll give you is, I've

Blake Boteler never lost a case in my life.

Blake Boteler Usually it's unlawful for you to have so

Blake Boteler much evidence, especially when you're

Blake Boteler doing undercover, you have hand-to-hand

Blake Boteler buys, and it's just so much evidence.

Blake Boteler It's, you know.

Blake Boteler So one of the guys that had threatened to

Blake Boteler do damage said he was

Blake Boteler gonna kill me and all this was,

Blake Boteler we took him to trial for assaulting a

Blake Boteler federal agent, because he was one of

Blake Boteler those that loved to punch me in the face

Blake Boteler when I was a prospect and stuff.

Blake Boteler So, and this was in Denver,

Blake Boteler in federal court in Denver.

Blake Boteler And, you know, I testified, I thought,

Blake Boteler well, this is a slam dunk, I mean.

Blake Boteler And the jury came back

Blake Boteler and said, not guilty.

Blake Boteler And they talked to the jury after and

Blake Boteler they said, well, if you're doing

Blake Boteler undercover, you need to expect to get hit

Blake Boteler in the face and beat up.

Blake Boteler That was the jury's take on it.

Blake Boteler A month later, he's in a bar called the

Blake Boteler A-frame Lounge in Commerce City,

Blake Boteler Colorado, and he shoots

Blake Boteler two people in that bar.

Blake Boteler He then gets arrested, makes bond.

Blake Boteler Then a couple of months later, he's at a

Blake Boteler party at the Sons of Silence Clubhouse

Blake Boteler there in Denver and he shoots two more

Blake Boteler people, one of them

Blake Boteler being a patch wearing member.

Blake Boteler So he shoots Meatloaf and-

Blake Boteler These guys have great names.

Blake Boteler Oh, they do.

Blake Boteler But I don't think Meatloaf could sing

Blake Boteler like the singer Meatloaf,

Blake Boteler but anyway, maybe he could.

Bill Erfurth I never heard him sing.

Bill Erfurth At least they're killing each other, you

Bill Erfurth know, that's a plus.

Bill Erfurth Well, and doing a good point.

Blake Boteler Shooting each other, you know.

Blake Boteler Well, Meatloaf lived, I mean, Meatloaf

Blake Boteler lived, he had a

Blake Boteler colostomy bag, but he lived.

Blake Boteler And then, and then in, I

Blake Boteler don't know, maybe 2019,

Blake Boteler that same guy got shot by another Sons of

Blake Boteler Silence member, even though

Blake Boteler he's not a member anymore.

Blake Boteler And then he got, last I heard he was in

Blake Boteler jail for doing a drive-by in Denver.

Blake Boteler Went back up to a

Blake Boteler house, shot it up, went home.

Blake Boteler The police arrested him, they sick their

Blake Boteler canine on him and he

Blake Boteler was punching the canine.

Blake Boteler So that guy, you know,

Blake Boteler yeah, he could be dangerous.

Blake Boteler A dangerous guy.

Dennis Collins And pick me up, it sounds like the V.

Dennis Collins They could.

Bill Erfurth Is the Sons of Silence,

Bill Erfurth are they still in business?

Blake Boteler Oh yeah, they're big as ever.

Blake Boteler So in business.

Dennis Collins Big as ever.

Dennis Collins I mean, you got a

Dennis Collins business license, I don't think.

Dennis Collins They're verified.

Blake Boteler Yeah, yeah, they're very, they're, I

Blake Boteler mean, in the outlaw biker world, they're

Blake Boteler one of the big boys.

Blake Boteler They're in Florida,

Blake Boteler Arkansas, all through the Midwest.

Blake Boteler Louisiana, over in Germany.

Bill Erfurth I gotta tell you, we had one particular

Bill Erfurth run-in and it was, I don't even know how

Bill Erfurth this happened because even before I got

Bill Erfurth on the police department in Miami,

Bill Erfurth somehow or another in Dade County, they

Bill Erfurth banned the outlaw motorcycle gang from

Bill Erfurth crossing the county line.

Bill Erfurth You couldn't even come in to Dade County

Bill Erfurth from Broward County and their

Bill Erfurth house was like in Hollywood.

Bill Erfurth And so they decided that they were gonna

Bill Erfurth say, screw you, and they were gonna test

Bill Erfurth the waters and somehow our department

Bill Erfurth found out about it and

Bill Erfurth rallied 100 of us together.

Bill Erfurth And they crossed from Broward County into

Bill Erfurth Dade County along A1A on the

Bill Erfurth beach into what's Sunny Isles.

Bill Erfurth And we were all ready

Bill Erfurth for them and waiting.

Bill Erfurth And basically we just beat the balls off

Bill Erfurth of them until they turned around and went

Bill Erfurth back to Broward County.

Bill Erfurth It was, it was ridiculous.

Blake Boteler Yeah, I mean, eventually they don't like

Blake Boteler getting hassled over and over and over,

Blake Boteler but yeah, a lot of jurisdictions have

Blake Boteler tried to make it where clubs can't fly

Blake Boteler their patches like that because of the

Blake Boteler violence and instills.

Blake Boteler I mean, you guys probably heard like in

Blake Boteler 2016 down here in Waco, Texas, the

Blake Boteler Bandidos and the Cossacks got into this

Blake Boteler big shootout, right?

Blake Boteler And several of the Cossacks were killed

Blake Boteler and a Bandito I think was killed.

Blake Boteler So that was a huge thing.

Blake Boteler And just a really odd

Blake Boteler thing happened at it.

Blake Boteler And if you'll remember what I told you,

Blake Boteler my undercover name was, it

Blake Boteler was Daniel Raymond Beauye.

Blake Boteler And the Beauye was spelled B-O-Y-E-T-T-E.

Blake Boteler So if you look under that 2016 at those

Blake Boteler bikers that were killed, one of them is

Blake Boteler Daniel Raymond Beauye was killed in 2016.

Blake Boteler And his, the only difference is there's

Blake Boteler not an E on the end of

Blake Boteler his last name, Beauyet.

Blake Boteler But so very odd, you know, the chances of

Blake Boteler Daniel Raymond Beauyet,

Blake Boteler my undercover identity.

Blake Boteler And then another guy who was a Cossack

Blake Boteler member, the Cossacks, a lot

Blake Boteler of motorcycle gangs was killed.

Blake Boteler So yeah, they're violent, and especially

Blake Boteler when they clash with other clubs and

Blake Boteler they're trying to fight over identities

Blake Boteler and respect to things that

Blake Boteler they like to fight about.

Dennis Collins You know, we could talk for hours, Blake,

Dennis Collins and you've been very generous with your

Dennis Collins stories and your time.

Dennis Collins We promise our listeners and viewers on

Dennis Collins Heroes Behind the Badge, when you tune in

Dennis Collins here, you're gonna hear

Dennis Collins real stories about real cops.

Dennis Collins And boy, did you fit the bill today.

Dennis Collins This is real stories about real cops and

Dennis Collins not very, and we all know this, not many

Dennis Collins cops actually do what you did.

Bill Erfurth Well, we haven't even talked about his

Bill Erfurth Waco and Ruby Ridge stories.

Bill Erfurth I know, well, we're

Bill Erfurth gonna have to come back.

Dennis Collins So I don't know if we keep

Dennis Collins going or we have him back.

Dennis Collins Let's have him back.

Dennis Collins That's a whole nother incident, right?

Dennis Collins Waco's a whole nother thing.

Blake Boteler Yeah, there's a lot of misinformation

Blake Boteler that's been put out over time about what

Blake Boteler happened in Waco and why we were there.

Blake Boteler And it's, you know, why didn't you just

Blake Boteler arrest him when he was out jogging?

Blake Boteler Well, anybody who knows anything about

Blake Boteler evidence is you can't arrest somebody and

Blake Boteler then not have any evidence.

Blake Boteler I mean, you had to do a

Blake Boteler search warrant to get the evidence.

Blake Boteler And so, yeah, there's a lot of

Blake Boteler misconceptions about that in

Blake Boteler these movies that got put out.

Blake Boteler They just fanned the flame.

Blake Boteler We'll have to have you back.

Dennis Collins We'll have to ask you to come back at

Dennis Collins some point and we'll

Dennis Collins do that another time.

Dennis Collins So I wanna thank you, Blake.

Dennis Collins Again, we talked about heroes on this

Dennis Collins podcast, Heroes Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins And you clearly are a

Dennis Collins hero behind the badge.

Dennis Collins Very few people have the courage, have

Dennis Collins the smarts, the intelligence to do

Dennis Collins something like this, to live a lie,

Dennis Collins basically, like you said, three lives.

Dennis Collins Very few people have

Dennis Collins the ability to do that.

Dennis Collins You not only did it, but you did it well,

Dennis Collins and you're here to tell about it.

Dennis Collins And that's important.

Dennis Collins You stood in our place to protect and

Dennis Collins defend and we appreciate that.

Dennis Collins So thank you again for joining us.

Blake Boteler Well, thank you for that.

Blake Boteler It's an honor to serve, but I am no hero.

Blake Boteler I know some heroes in my life, but I am

Blake Boteler not one of those guys.

Blake Boteler But I appreciate that nonetheless.

Paul Boomer There's one more thing Blake told us

Paul Boomer after the camera stopped rolling.

Paul Boomer It was about the arrest plan that would

Paul Boomer have staged his own funeral.

Blake Boteler Do you guys know who Jay Dobbins is?

Blake Boteler There's a book out there called "No

Blake Boteler Angel" and a very good book.

Blake Boteler And anyway, he's an outstanding

Blake Boteler undercover agent, right?

Blake Boteler So I brought him out on this case, right?

Blake Boteler Because I needed somebody originally, and

Blake Boteler we didn't get into it.

Blake Boteler We just didn't have the time.

Blake Boteler But originally the plan that we had made

Blake Boteler was I was gonna be killed

Blake Boteler in a car bombing, right?

Blake Boteler And that my body would

Blake Boteler then, we'd have a funeral.

Blake Boteler We'd actually bought a funeral plot in a

Blake Boteler cemetery there in Colorado Springs.

Blake Boteler We were gonna,

Blake Boteler all the outlaw bikers and everybody that

Blake Boteler I dealt with come to the

Blake Boteler funeral in the graveyard.

Blake Boteler And that's where we were

Blake Boteler actually gonna do the arrest.

Blake Boteler Instead of all these individuals searched

Blake Boteler in arrest warrants

Blake Boteler which was very dangerous.

Blake Boteler But we were putting this out to ATF and

Blake Boteler headquarters there in

Blake Boteler DC, and they shot it down.

Blake Boteler So we had to do it other way, which was

Blake Boteler the way we ended up doing it, which had

Blake Boteler its own built-in problems.

Blake Boteler But we had the fake body from a back

Blake Boteler draft, one of the burned

Blake Boteler bodies that was gonna be there.

Blake Boteler And I'd already lined up the hearse and a

Blake Boteler friend of mine has a funeral home and I

Blake Boteler actually trained with him on some stuff,

Blake Boteler part of my background

Blake Boteler under cover background.

Blake Boteler And Jay Dobbins was gonna drive the

Blake Boteler hearse and all that stuff.

Blake Boteler So he didn't know much about motorcycles,

Blake Boteler but that one got shot down.

Blake Boteler So later we brought in several guys and

Blake Boteler Jay was one of them.

Blake Boteler And he got bit by the bug then for outlaw

Blake Boteler bikers because he didn't

Blake Boteler work bikers until then.

Blake Boteler But when he left there,

Blake Boteler nothing but bikers.

Bill Erfurth Yes, and I remember one time sitting on

Bill Erfurth the couch and I was like, "Hey, Jay, I'm

Bill Erfurth gonna tell you myself, "how the fuck am I

Bill Erfurth ever gonna get out of this?"

Blake Boteler Yeah, it was a true

Blake Boteler conversation in the undercover house.

Blake Boteler We just looked at each other and said,

Blake Boteler "Hey man, how much longer can we go?"

Blake Boteler Because it's never gonna stop

Blake Boteler the flow of weapons and dope.

Blake Boteler That would never stop.

Blake Boteler So we had to pick a time.

Blake Boteler So we picked October 7th, 1999,

Blake Boteler and this was back in whatever,

Blake Boteler May or whatever we did.

Blake Boteler I don't know exactly, but it

Blake Boteler was like six months in advance.

Blake Boteler So, but you had to find an endpoint.

Dennis Collins If you liked anything Blake had to say

Dennis Collins today, and there was a lot

Dennis Collins to like, would you do this?

Dennis Collins Would you hit subscribe, follow, like, or

Dennis Collins most important, would you make a comment

Dennis Collins about what Blake had to say?

Dennis Collins This is a true American law enforcement

Dennis Collins hero who put his life on the line to get

Dennis Collins into what most people run away from.

Dennis Collins And if you liked his story, please

Dennis Collins follow, like, subscribe, make a comment.

Dennis Collins Also, Citizens Behind the

Dennis Collins Badge sponsors this podcast.

Dennis Collins Citizens Behind the Badge

Dennis Collins is the leading organization,

Dennis Collins the leading voice in support of the men

Dennis Collins and women of law enforcement.

Dennis Collins You can get involved right now today by

Dennis Collins going to citizensbehindthebadge.org.

Dennis Collins That's citizensbehindthebadge.org.

Dennis Collins Again, our thanks to Blake, our guest.

Dennis Collins My thanks to Bill Erpirth and Craig

Dennis Collins Floyd, our co-hosts.

Dennis Collins It's Dennis Collins saying, signing off

Dennis Collins for this episode of

Dennis Collins Heroes Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins We'll see you next time, stay tuned.

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