Extra police greet bikers at Nevada rally

LAUGHLIN, Nev. — The tens of thousands of bikers at this year's Laughlin River Run motorcycle rally will find twice the usual number of police, plus motorcycle searches for drugs and weapons, a ban on cans and bottles, and a curfew for those under 18.

The changes come a year after a brawl with guns, knives and wrenches killed two Hell's Angels and one Mongols motorcycle gang member and injured at least 12 other people at Harrah's Laughlin hotel-casino. Another Hell's Angels member was shot to death in California.

The bikers attending this year will have to cross checkpoints before they even enter the town for the rally, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

Police at checkpoints and volunteers will distribute fliers listing laws and event rules — including a 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew for anyone younger than 18.

Most hotels will ask the expected 80,000 motorcyclists not to wear gang emblems or logos, said Andre Carrier, an executive at the Golden Nugget hotel-casino and chairman of the town's organizing committee. Some hotels will have metal detectors at entrances.

"What we're trying to do is ensure their safety," said Lt. Thomas Smitley, head of the Las Vegas police substation in Laughlin, a town of 8,000 on the banks of the Colorado River. "We'll be proactive and highly visible."

After last year's brawl, the town briefly considered canceling the five-day rally.

"But it's an important event for us — important for our brand, important for our economy," Carrier said.

In 1983, the first River Run drew fewer than 500 people. It has grown into a signature event for this town 100 miles south of Las Vegas, near the Arizona-California state line.

The rally now pours an estimated $25 million into town; weekend room rates at nine major casinos jump from $40 per night to $190 or more.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people are there to party, to play," said Maryland state police Lt. Terry Katz, a past board member of the International Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators Association and a former rally attendee. "The problem is the 1 percenters."

These days the riders of $20,000 Harley-Davidsons are more likely to be doctors or lawyers than outlaws.

"We're a group, not a gang, said Davy Weller, 56, a retired insurance broker with homes in Sun Valley, Idaho, and Las Vegas.

"Our feeling is it was an isolated instance," he said of last year's violence. "I'd be shocked if there were any problems this year."