White supremacist prison gang leader accused of attacking two California officers

LOS ANGELES — A leader of a white supremacist prison gang is charged with the attempted murder of two officers at California State Prison in Sacramento, authorities said Tuesday.

Ronald D. Yandell, a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, allegedly attacked two officers last Friday morning as they returned him to his cell after an appointment at the prison’s health building.

Prison officials say he pulled an “improvised weapon” on the officers. He dropped the weapon after an officer used pepper spray and was restrained and removed without further incident, officials said. No personnel were injured.

Yandell is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. He arrived in prison in 2004. The case will be referred to the district attorney’s office for possible misdemeanor charges, officials said.

The Aryan Brotherhood is a violent white supremacist gang that formed in California state prisons in the late 1960s and has since spread throughout the federal prison system. Authorities have tried for decades to bring down the organization.

In 2019, after a multi-year investigation, Yandell was charged The killings of several inmates included a member of a rival gang and Aryan Brotherhood associates who violated the rules, according to officials. Federal officials said he was part of the gang’s three-member leadership committee.

A jury found him guilty in April of several counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, as well as several charges related to the distribution of heroin and methamphetamine.

Officials said Yandell and his cellmate oversaw a significant trafficking of heroin and methamphetamine and used smuggled cellphones to direct murders and drug trafficking in Sacramento and other California cities, while also controlling membership in the Aryan Brotherhood.

One of the rival gang members murdered led by Yandell was Hugo Pinell, an alleged leader of the Black Guerilla Family gang and infamous member of the San Quentin 6, with whom he helped slit the throats of San Quentin prison guards during a failed escape attempt in 1971.

Pinell, who long denied any gang ties, was killed days after being released from isolation.