Eight more people, including six from Vidor, have pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges in connection with a white supremacist gang making and selling methamphetamine. Three pleaded guilty Wednesday in Beaumont federal court to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. The others pleaded guilty earlier this week. They all face up to 40 years in prison. Four other people pleaded guilty in August to racketeering and murder in connection with the gang. Three of those four were from Vidor or Bridge City. They pleaded guilty to killing a Bridge City man, who was also in the gang, back in 2011. The victim was 25-year-old James Lee Sedtal of Bridge City. The gang is known as SWS, or Solid Wood Soldiers, Separate White State or Southern White Soldiers. It started in prisons and now operates in and out of prisons. According to information from U.S. Attorney John M. Bales of the Eastern District of Texas, the gang members were selling meth to buy property to create a ‘separatist community.’ Federal indictments were returned against 12 people involved in gang activity back in March. Nine of those 12 were from the Vidor area, two from Silsbee and one from Hull. The ones from Vidor who pleaded guilty this week are 40-year-old Craig Pipps known as ‘Lone Wolf,’ 46-year-old Juanette Marie Cunningham, 45-year-old Michael Taylor Word, 27-year-old Erica Nicole Parrott, 28-year-old Mikell A. Cunningham, and 54-year-old Ricky Allen Nichols. The two from Silsbee are 37-year-old Cassi Diane Hetzel and 33-year-old Mack Langston Warner. The U.S. Attorney’s office said Pipps was the president of SWS and encouraged members to enrich the gang through criminal activity, including selling meth. In August 2010, Pipps and 28-year-old Kristopher Leigh Guidry of Vidor, who pleaded guilty to murder, agreed to sell meth to raise $30,000 to buy the real property. Pipps was in federal prison at the time and he was supposed to get control the money when he was released. SWS members made ‘shake and bake’ meth from September 2010 to January 2011 to sell in the Orange County area. In February, SWS members became associated with 49-year-old Vicki Stark-Fitts of Hull. She helped supply them with the stronger crystal methamphetamine imported from Mexico, along with firearms. Sedtal, a member of SWS, was ordered to be murdered in March 2011 after he shot and wounded a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, another all-white gang. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Sedtal was killed to prevent retribution from the Aryans. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office was one of the many federal, state and local agencies working on the investigation. When the indictments were returned in March, Sgt. Chad Hogan with the sheriff’s office said that Erica Nicole Parrott is the sister of 22-year-old Joshua Parrott, who disappeared Memorial Day weekend 2010. He was last seen at a Vidor convenience store.
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