Steven Ryals
Introduction
Steven Glenn Ryals, 72 — known as “Hot Tub” and the president of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club’s Lubbock Notorious Chapter — was sentenced on 16 October 2026 to 135 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, after agents found roughly 3.2 pounds of the drug inside a locked filing-cabinet drawer at the clubhouse that also served as his residence. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix imposed the sentence, Ryals’s second identical 135-month meth sentence in a quarter century.
Background Information
Ryals had served with the Bandidos for over 50 years and led the club’s Lubbock chapter when federal law enforcement began investigating him and other members in early 2025 for distributing methamphetamine in the Lubbock area. On 27 February 2025, FBI agents and the Lubbock Anti-Gang Center executed a search warrant at the Bandidos clubhouse — which also served as Ryals’s residence — and discovered approximately 3.2 pounds of suspected methamphetamine in a locked filing-cabinet drawer, along with Bandidos paraphernalia and tools used to package and distribute narcotics.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted and sentenced. Ryals was convicted of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and sentenced to 135 months on 16 October 2026.
At sentencing, prosecutors outlined DEA laboratory testing confirming the seized substance was 1,449.6 grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride at 98% purity — an amount, prosecutors said, consistent only with high-level distribution. Additional methamphetamine was found in Ryals’s bedroom closet and in his vehicle during a traffic stop on the same day as the search, all of which he admitted possessing with intent to distribute. U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said “Steven Ryals exploited his leadership of the Bandidos’ Lubbock chapter to push high purity methamphetamine into our community,” and that the sentence sends a clear message that prosecutors “will aggressively pursue those who traffic dangerous drugs.”
Public Reaction and Consequences
FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock said “Today’s sentence reflects the FBI’s continued commitment to protecting our communities from the dangers of high purity narcotics and the criminal networks that distribute them,” citing the partnership among federal, state, and local agencies in disrupting drug trafficking organizations. The investigation was conducted by the FBI, the Lubbock Texas Anti-Gang Center, and the Caprock High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, whose TAG Center includes agents from the DEA, ATF, Texas DPS, the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office, and Lubbock Police.
Current Status
Ryals, 72, is beginning a 135-month federal prison term — the same sentence length he received in 1999 for a prior methamphetamine trafficking conviction, imposed this time by Judge Hendrix. Assistant United States Attorney Stephen J. Rancourt prosecuted the case. At his age, the sentence is effectively a life term, and his leadership of the Lubbock Notorious Chapter has ended in a federal prison cell.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A man who spent half a century in one of Texas’s most notorious motorcycle clubs, rising to its chapter presidency, will die in the system rather than retire from it: 98%-pure meth in the filing cabinet of his own clubhouse made the distribution case prosecutors could not lose, and the 2026 sentence mirrors, almost to the month of his life, the one he drew in 1999.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas, “Leader of Lubbock Bandidos Motorcycle Club sentenced to federal prison for meth distribution” — source