By Callie Buys
White supremacist groups in Utah continue to grow as their actions become increasingly motivated by money rather than race, law enforcement officials report.
Recent local events have raised awareness about the activities of these groups.
In August, law enforcement officials shot white supremacist leader Scott Biswell in a Provo hotel while serving an arrest warrant. Officers received threats from white supremacists in the weeks following the incident.
At least 65 members of white supremacist groups - representing each of the four main white supremacists groups in the state - have Utah County addresses, estimates a detective from the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force.
'The population of the white supremacist groups makes them one of the most active things that we have to deal with on a daily basis, on a weekly basis,' said Bill Robertson, administrative investigative sergeant with the Salt Lake Metro Gang Unit. 'They''re probably the gangs we deal with most.'
Robertson said that approximately 350 documented members of white supremacist groups Soldiers of Aryan Culture, Silent Aryan Warriors, Fourth Reich and Krieger Verwandt reside in the Salt Lake regional area, including Davis and Utah counties.
The numbers could be much higher, however. Prison records provide much of the documentation used to count white supremacists, so members who have not been incarcerated may not be counted.
'There are a lot of members out there that we haven''t identified yet,' Robertson said.
Often, white supremacists can be easily recognized by the tattoos covering their skin.
'Some of them have tattooed their face, their eyelids, the top of their head,' said Jack Ford, spokesman for the Utah Department of Corrections. 'Gang leaders don''t do that. They tattoo on back or chest, where a shirt would cover. These other ones, these followers, tattoo every place on their body they can find. Its bizarre.'
Different gang members, white supremacist and others, have number and symbol tattoos that represent certain activities the individual has carried out.
'If you''re in prison, you know that this tattoo indicates that he''s part of this gang,' Ford said.
Robertson cites the corrections system as the main place for white supremacist group growth.
White supremacist activity follows a peak and valley cycle, Robertson said, depending on the number of group members and leaders in and out of the corrections system.
'It''s kind of like a revolving door from prison,' he said. 'Our main gangs that we have here have kind of been brought up through corrections institutions.'
Sgt. Guy Gustman of the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force noted the same trend.
'We''ve had a number of white supremacists who have been put away in prison who have been released and are coming back into the county and are active and doing recruiting in the county again, ' Gustman said.
Gang numbers, including white supremacist groups, have grown in Utah prisons in the past ten years.
'In general the Hispanic groups have grown a little bit faster,' Ford said.
Ford said that of the 5,300 inmates incarcerated at the Utah State Prison, more than 1,000 belong to some kind of gang. While Hispanic gangs have the most members, white supremacist group numbers tally a close second.
The groups don''t begin in prison, Ford said, noting that gang-member inmates have tighter restrictions than other inmates.
Some white supremacists belonged to gangs before prison, others joined once in prison.
'I don''t think it''s that large of a number, but there are a few that get recruited in prison,' Ford said. 'I think all gangs try to recruit new kids coming into prison.'
The groups provide protection and a network of drugs to members, who often have to pass a test before being accepted into the group.
'To get into (some groups), you have to slime an officer or beat another inmate,' Ford said.
'They may convert while in prison, or they may just join the gang because they think they need some protection,' he said.
While white supremacist groups have gained notoriety for racial activities, officials say that the groups have moved to other activities.
'I''m not sure it''s the philosophy - they may get indoctrinated after,' Ford said. 'Some of white supremacists (are) starting to move into a type of activity that is revenue generating.'
These revenue-generating activities include dealing in drugs and threatening or intimidating people to gain money rather to make a racial statement.
'They''ve kind of turned to financial criminal activity rather than violent criminal activity,' Ford said.
Robertson estimates that 75 percent of members of the groups in the Salt Lake region use methamphetamines.
'We are starting to see them more involved in the drug trade,' Gustman said. 'We don''t get a whole lot of the racial part here because there''s not a whole lot of racial diversity in Utah County.'
Nationally, the FBI reported more than 4,300 incidents of hate crimes based on race in 2000, according to Partners Against Hate, a joint organization dedicated to spreading information about hate crimes.
The organization also documents 37 hate incidents in Utah motivated by racial bias, accounting for more than half of the 71 hate incidents reported in 2000.
White supremacist groups did not necessarily participate in each of these incidents, however.
'The white supremacists have a belief that they are superior,' Ford said. 'The other gang members are not singling out the whites or the blacks ... the white supremacist group kind of exists because they believe that the white race is superior and other races are inferior.'