Two men — including one from Reading — who were members of a motorcycle gang chapter in Schuylkill County have been convicted in U.S. Middle District Court of robbery and firearm charges.

Solomon Rodriguez, 34, of Reading and Steven Wong, 43, of Shallotte, N.C., were convicted June 21 of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, firearms conspiracy, attempted Hobbs Act robbery, Hobbs Act robbery, and two counts of use of firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced Tuesday.

The Hobbs Act prohibits the actual or attempted robbery or extortion affecting interstate or foreign commerce.

The verdict followed a two-week trial before U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani.

U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam said in a release that Wong was the president of the Schuylkill County chapter of the Infamous Ryders Motorcycle Club. Rodriguez was a club member.

According to Karam:

Wong recruited members of the motorcycle club to participate in a series of brutal home-invasion armed robberies in Schuylkill and Berks counties in the summer and fall of 2020.

Wong rewarded members involved in the conspiracy with money and free drugs.

During the home-invasion robberies, two or three members of the conspiracy would enter the homes of local street-level drug dealers while wearing masks and armed with firearms and knives and rob them of drugs and drug proceeds. One of the firearms used was a fully automatic homemade AR-15 style assault rifle.

The evidence at trial was that Rodriguez was among several conspiracy members who carried out the robberies on the orders of Wong. Rodriguez was involved in all three charged robberies. Officials said he went into the homes on Aug. 29 and 30, 2020, and drove others who went into a home on Sept. 14, 2020.

During the seven-day trial, prosecutors presented testimony from 19 witnesses, including expert testimony from a irearms expert and an expert in historic cell-site location data analysis.

Both defendants testified on their own behalf.

“This group acted with extreme violence, invading people’s homes with machine guns drawn, and committing crimes that brutalized their victims,” said Eric DeGree, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Philadelphia Field Division. “Though our cooperative efforts with the Pennsylvania State Police and local police departments, we successfully brought these criminals to justice and ended their trail of crimes, making our communities safer again.”

Rodriguez and Wong remain in federal custody pending sentencing in October and November, respectively. Officials said Rodriguez was arrested in Pennsylvania in August 2022 and Wong was arrested in North Carolina in December 2020. Both were ordered detained following their arrests.

The charges stem from an investigation involving ATF; state police; police departments in Mahanoy City, Schuylkill Haven, Pottsville, Shillington and Reading; and the Lehigh County district attorney’s office. Assistant United States Attorneys James Buchanan, Jenny Roberts, and Sarah Lloyd prosecuted the case.

Officials said the case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program that brings together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence and to make neighborhoods safer.