Man Convicted for Destroying Identification Numbers on a Harley Davidson and for Possessing an Unregistered Destructive Device

May 19, 2010 - COLUMBIA, SC—United States Attorney William N. Nettles announced that Wendell Ray Jenkins of Rock Hill, South Carolina, was convicted by a federal jury in Columbia on four counts: (1) conspiracy to destroy vehicle identification numbers on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and to distribute the parts; (2) obliteration of vehicle identification numbers on a Harley Davidson motorcycle; (3) possession of motorcycle parts with destroyed identification numbers intending to sell those parts; and (4) possession of an unregistered destructive device. Senior United States District Judge Matthew J. Perry presided over the trial and will sentence Jenkins later this summer. Jenkins faces a maximum term of five years for each of the first two counts and 10 years for each of the other two counts.

Evidence presented at trial established that during the execution of a search warrant at Jenkins’ home in August of 2009, officers and agents found a 2008 Harley Davidson motorcycle that had been reported stolen. According to testimony, Jenkins obliterated identification numbers on the motorcycle using a drill and participated in chopping the motorcycle into parts to be sold. During the search, officers also found an unregistered Streetsweeper, 12-gauge assault weapon originally designed in South Africa for use by paramilitary forces in anti-terrorism and riot-control actions. Federal law requires that such a weapon be registered.

The investigation—which led to two guilty pleas in addition to the conviction of Jenkins—was a joint effort by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, York County Multi-jurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit, York County Sheriff, Rock Hill Police Department, and Fort Mill Police Department, all working together on the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) with the United States Attorney’s Office.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jay N. Richardson