Former Bandidos national vice president sentenced to life in federal prison

John Xavier Portillo ordered to give up motorcycle, firearms, $17K

SAN ANTONIO – A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former high-ranking officer of the Bandidos to two consecutive life sentences and 20 years in federal prison on racketeering and drug trafficking charges.

John Xavier Portillo, 59, was a former national vice president of the criminal motorcycle organization.

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Portillo was also ordered to forfeit his motorcycle, three firearms and $17,827.20 seized from a search of his home in 2016, a U.S. Attorney's Office news release said.

Jurors in May found Portillo and Bandidos national president Jeffrey Fay Pike, 63, guilty on multiple charges.

Evidence during the trial revealed that in 2006, Pike and Portillo ordered other Bandidos members to kill Anthony Benesh, who tried to start a Texas chapter of the Hells Angels in Austin.

Jurors also found that Portillo and others killed Robert Lara in January 2002 in Atascosa County as payback for killing Bandidos member Javier Negrete outside a San Antonio bar in October 2001.

Trial testimony also revealed that Pike, Portillo and others conspired to kill and assault members and associates of the Cossacks Outlaw Motorcycle Organization. 

Portillo and other members of the Bandidos were engaged in trafficking methamphetamine and cocaine and maintained an agreement with the Texas Mexican Mafia wherein Bandidos
members were not required to pay the 10-percent "dime" to the Texas Mexican Mafia in exchange for permission to traffic narcotics, the news release said.

Pike, who faces up to life in federal prison, is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.


About the Author:

David Ibañez has been managing editor of KSAT.com since the website's launch in October 2000.