A short, stout man with a graying beard and a Vietnam veterans ballcap shakes his head as he looks at a broken down gate in front of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, on Campbellton Road.

“It’s just another day in paradise, that’s all,” he says.

This biker would not identify himself, but says he was called after federal agents raided the club on Thursday.  He said agents used a “small tank” to batter down the gate and get into the ramshackle compound, then broke down the door and searched the place.

“They tore up everything in the house.   They broke the commode with a sledgehammer,” he said.

It was one of two FBI raids as agents rounded up about two dozen bikers on charges of drug distribution and weapons violations.   The second raid occurred at the headquarters of the Hoodlums motorcycle club in Buford.

The short biker puffs on a cigarette and shakes his head again. He says allegations of illegal gun trading and drug dealing are absurd.

“We wouldn’t mess around.  We’re under too many surveillances to come in and out of here or anywhere else with anything that’s illegal,” he says.

The parade of defendants continued well into the afternoon at the federal courthouse in Gainesville, where they were making their first court appearances.