FRESNO — Prosecutors here have unsealed yet another indictment against the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, this time leveling charges against a man who has become the 22nd defendant in a sprawling racketeering case.
Alex Van Beusekom was charged in the indictment with racketeering and working with an Aryan Brotherhood member, Jayson Weaver, to extort and assault an unnamed victim. As part of the plot, Van Beusekom allegedly kidnapped the person in January 2022, the indictment alleges.
Van Beusekom was arraigned on July 23 and ordered detained while the case was pending. A trial date has been set for April 2026, records show.
Van Beusekom joins five other alleged Aryan Brotherhood members or associates on the indictment, including Weaver, Waylon Pitchford, Andrew Collins, Justin Gray, and Evan Perkins. Thus far, this prosecution, and a corresponding case against the gang in Sacramento, have been rife with evidence of treachery and violence inside and outside of prison.
The defendants, save Van Beusekom, are charged in various murders or alleged murder plots, including the 2015 killing of Hugo “Yogi” Pinell — committed by Pitchford and Weaver at California State Prison, Sacramento, allegedly to earn their way into the gang.
Perkins is charged assisting Brandon “Bam Bam” Bannick in carrying out a March 2022 double murder ordered by Aryan Brotherhood member Francis Clement. Bannick testified for the prosecution at a trial this year where Clement and two other Aryan Brotherhood members were convicted.
Collins is alleged to have joined Aryan Brotherhood commissioner John Stinson — one of Clement’s co-defendants at trial — in another murder plot, but prosecutors also believe Stinson soured on Collins and later put a hit out on him.