Report: Texas-born prison gang a growing threat White supremacist group likened to Mafia. By Mike Ward AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Updated: 10:18 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, 2009 They go by nicknames like Droopy, Radar and Thumper. Members of their governing board are known as "ugly boys," their regional vice presidents "clowns." But those names hint at a sense of humor that masks the seriousness of their enterprise. Members of the Aryan Circle, a Texas-born prison gang that has become one of the fastest-growing and most dangerous white supremacist groups in the U.S., trade in murder, drug dealing and stolen property, according to a new report by the Anti-Defamation League, a human rights organization. "The Aryan Circle sets itself apart from the other white supremacist groups by running a profit-driven and often-violent criminal enterprise, both in the prison system and on the streets," Dena Marks, a Houston-based associate director for the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement. John Moriarty, inspector general of the Texas prison system , where the Aryan Circle was born in 1985, compared the group to the Mafia: "If anyone doesn't believe these people aren't as dangerous as the traditional mob, they're crazy." According to the report, many of the group's estimated 1,400 U.S. members are concentrated in Texas — in an arc that goes from Wichita Falls to Fort Worth to Waco to Austin to San Antonio to San Angelo. Many Aryan Circle members have service or manual labor jobs, and many work in the oil fields, the report states. Recently, Aryan Circle members were accused of stealing Ford pickups and taking them to Brownsville, where a Mexican crime group allegedly picked them up. Two months ago, Aryan Circle members were among 47 people arrested in San Angelo on federal and state charges in an anti-gang crackdown. Among the 33 confirmed gang members who were busted were members of eight other active Texas gangs — many of whom the Aryan Circle would not associate with in prison because of gang rivalries. "It comes down to drugs and money, like it usually has," said Homer Burson, a prison investigator who specializes in tracking gangs and security-threat groups. "Once they get out and get together having meetings, it's a whole collection of different criminals — burglars, people doing time for robbery, drugs, homicides — that get together in this criminal organization. " Mark Pitcavage, an investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League in Ohio, said the pace of the group's growth is alarming; membership has increased about 50 percent in prisons during the past decade. The Aryan Circle now reaches into Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin, according to the report. By 2008, there were 780 "confirmed" members in Texas prisons, up from 500 to 600 a few years before, according to the report. More than 150 additional members are in federal prisons. Unlike other prison gangs, the Aryan Circle admits women, and authorities said that practice recently gave rise to friction between various segments of the organization after a female member was put in charge of supervising men. "Organized criminal activity ranges from methamphetamine production and distribution to a variety of theft rings," the report states. "As is also the case with its rival gang, the Texas Aryan Brotherhood, a number of arrests for methamphetamine production or sales have been 'hotel busts,' in which the perpetrators rent a hotel room at an inexpensive hotel and use the room to cook and/or sell meth." Case in point is a bust in Round Rock: George Steven Owen — identified by police as an Aryan Circle member — was arrested in a room containing marijuana, meth and chemicals to make meth. In late 2005, Owen was sentenced to 40 years in prison. mward@statesman. com Find this article at: http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/report-texas-born-prison- gang-a-growing-threat-133019.html