This article has been updated to reflect Wesley Gullett’s capture.
The alleged leader of a meth-dealing white supremacist gang who had escaped from an Arkansas jail this week was captured on Thursday, several outlets reported.
Wesley “Bad Company” Gullett was indicted alongside dozens of other New Aryan Empire members in February and charged with attempted murder, distribution of methamphetamine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and other offenses.
Gullett and another man being held on unrelated charges, Chris Sanderson, escaped from Jefferson County Detention Center sometime Tuesday or early Wednesday morning, Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. told local station KATV. Sanders was still at large Thursday.
The Marshals said they were notified of the escape at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported the men were last seen in jail Monday night, and that jail officials “were alerted Wednesday morning by another prisoner that the two men were not in their cells.”
The Marshals announced $15,000 in rewards for information leading to the arrest of the escaped inmates.
US Marshals Offer up to $15,000 in Rewards for 2 Arkansas Jail Escapees Wesley Gullett & Christopher Sanderson
Call in tips to USMS at 800-336-0102 or submit confidentially online at https://t.co/H3TflOnrfj or via the USMS Tips app.
https://t.co/8DuVdX1qqv pic.twitter.com/9PmSoIFBYj— U.S. Marshals (@USMarshalsHQ) August 1, 2019
“I’m going to be honest with you,” Woods told KATV of the escape. “It comes back down to complacency, comes down to just being lazy and not paying attention to what we’re doing. And so at this point, we’re handling that internally with our staff.”
The sheriff said the men had placed “dummy bodies” on their beds to make them look occupied, The Pine Bluff Commercial reported, before escaping to the roof.
The Justice Department identified Gullett as the gang’s president and alleged he “solicited several NAE members and associates to murder [a] confidential informant.” During an investigation coordinated with local law enforcement, the Justice Department said, officials seized “more than 25 pounds of methamphetamine, as well as 69 firearms and more than $70,000 in drug proceeds.”
Begun in the Arkansas prison system, the gang now has thousands of members, prosecutors said.
H/t Associated Press
