by FRESNO, Calif. — Three high-ranking leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood have been sentenced in a major federal racketeering case that revealed how the violent prison gang controlled criminal operations inside and beyond California’s prison walls — with ties and implications reaching as far as Wyoming.
The sentences were handed down on May 19, 2025, in a federal courtroom in Fresno, capping off a years-long investigation into the gang’s ruthless grip on organized crime across multiple states and counties.
Francis Clement, 58, and Kenneth Johnson, 63, both identified as senior leaders within the Aryan Brotherhood, received life sentences in federal prison with no chance of parole. John Stinson, 70, another high-ranking member, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
According to court records and trial evidence, the gang masterminded murders, drug trafficking, and violent assaults — often using contraband cellphones from within California’s state prisons to coordinate crimes across the country.
Between 2016 and 2023, the Aryan Brotherhood ran a methamphetamine distribution ring and ordered contract killings that extended beyond California, with federal investigators warning that the gang’s influence could impact correctional systems in states like Wyoming, where prison officials are already working to combat rising gang recruitment and violence.
Clement was convicted of a RICO conspiracy and five murders in aid of racketeering, all committed while he was incarcerated. Johnson was convicted on similar racketeering charges and linked to two murders, including the 2020 killing of Allan Roshanski and Ruslan Magomedgadzhiev during a coordinated attack.
Clement later ordered three more murders in 2022, prosecutors said.
Stinson, already serving a sentence in the California prison system, held significant authority within the gang — including the power to approve violent attacks. Evidence included wiretaps of Stinson conducting Brotherhood business via a smuggled cellphone from his cell.
“These individuals led a prison gang known for ruthless murders and widespread methamphetamine trafficking,” said Matthew Galeotti, chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Their reach extended from behind bars to communities across multiple states, including Wyoming, sowing fear and violence wherever they operated.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith for the Eastern District of California added, “Today’s sentences deal a serious blow to a violent criminal enterprise that believed prison walls made them untouchable. They were wrong.”
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with support from law enforcement agencies across Los Angeles, San Diego, Pomona, Torrance, Kern County, and others. Several more defendants tied to the Aryan Brotherhood are still awaiting trial.
Authorities in Wyoming and other states are now reviewing their own prison gang protocols, concerned that similar organized crime tactics could infiltrate their correctional systems.
