MOTORCYCLE SHOP OWNER FACES CHARGES

Courts: A Key Figure In The Alleged Drug Trafficking Ring Is Described As A
Savvy Businessman.

Howard "Rusty"Coones may look like a big bad biker, but some who know
him say the president of the Orange County chapter of the Hells Angels
thinks like a businessman and acts more like a gentle giant than the
dope smuggler he has been labeled by federal officials.

Federal drug trafficking charges filed Monday contend that Coones'
Santa Ana motorcycle shop, The Big Red Machine, was used in a $1
million-a-week conspiracy to smuggle methamphetamine and cocaine to
Hawaii inside Harley Davidson motorcycles. The ring was allegedly
headed by John Ward, 28, of Orange and aided by Orange County Deputy
District Attorney Bryan Kazrian, 35, of Aliso Viejo.

The charges, against a total of 12 people, contend that Coones' shop,
in an industrial park at 2808 W. Fifth St., was where materials used
by the drug ring were picked up and delivered.

Coones is in the Santa Ana Jail awaiting a bail hearing Friday.

"He's a good guy, a monster guy in size, but the guy is astoundingly
sharp," said Keith Ball, who has followed the motorcycle scene since
the 1970s for Easyrider Magazine. "The Big Red Machine (is the
registered trademark) for the Hells Angels line for T-shirts and
sweatshirts. Rusty started the Big Red Machine line for
motorcycles."

"The man parts a crowd when he walks through a event," Hells Angels
member Doug Ford said of Coones, who stands 6-feet-4 on a massive
frame of tattooed muscle. "There is always a smile on his face; he is
fair and just."

Coones, 44, of Garden Grove, a one-time member of the Hessian's
Motorcycle Club, is president of the Orange County Hells Angels
chapter, founded in October 1996. He started the Big Red Machine
Motorcycle Co. Inc., which features a custom line of high-powered
motorcycles, in August 1998.

"Hells Angels Roll Into Bike Biz" says the advertisement for the line
of $18,000 motorcycles posted on the Orange County Hells Angels Web
site. The bikes' logo features skulls on the gas tank - a white one
with a halo and a red one with horns.

Coones is a longtime Orange County resident who belonged to the San
Fernando Valley chapter of the Hells Angels before helping found the
Orange County chapter. The international club, whose reputation has
been fodder for movies and the target of federal racketeering
indictments, has attempted in recent years to present an image of
social conscience by sponsoring charity events.

FBI special agent Carl Swanson said in recent years, Orange County has
had little known criminal activity by motorcycle gangs, compared with
other areas of the country.