Two accused associates of the Pagans motorcycle gang waived preliminary hearings yesterday and will stand trial with other members of an alleged racketeering ring that state police say was controlled by fugitive Raymond "Pete" Overly, head of the Greensburg chapter of the Pagans.

Shane Pierce, 26, of West Newton, and Ernest Frantz III, 44, of Herminie, appeared briefly before District Judge Roger Eckels in Westmoreland County.

While neither man is a member of the outlaw motorcycle gang, a state grand jury presentment said they were involved with the Pagans in distributing marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine supplied from Mexican dealers in Atlanta and operated at the direction of Mr. Overly, who has fled to Florida.

The presentment, handed up in Allegheny County, recounts a three-year investigation by state troopers and details the gang's illegal activities, initiation rites and structure in Western Pennsylvania.

The document says the Pagans have built a permanent, national headquarters on Duvall Road in Fallowfield, Washington County, and identifies the national president as David "Bart" Barbado. It also indicates the gang has four local chapters -- in Pittsburgh, McKeesport, Fayette City and Greensburg.

The investigation focused on the Greensburg chapter and Mr. Overly, 38, a former Belle Vernon resident, whom troopers said ran a drug-dealing network and motorcycle theft operation from his company, PRA Racing, in Mount Pleasant and later in Elizabeth Township.

Undercover Troopers Matthew Baumgard and Lyle Graber, who has since joined the Allegheny County district attorney's office, built the case with informants and, early in the investigation, video surveillance of a two-day party at a rented picnic pavilion in Yukon in June 2006 attended by hundreds of Pagans.

The surveillance, which showed Pagans snorting cocaine, allowed troopers to make identifications of various members, authorities said. The party was actually one of three "mandatory" Pagan events that one of the main witnesses, a prospect who wanted to become a member, had to attend. The others were held in Wildwood, N.J., and at the Washington County clubhouse.

That witness and others told the grand jury of attending monthly chapter meetings, which they called "going to church," and of generating income for the gang by selling drugs and stealing and rebuilding motorcycles.

Gang members and associates often traveled to Atlanta to pick up drugs, although Mr. Overly didn't know that some of his dealers were informants.

Several witnesses testified to Mr. Overly's violence, as well, saying he beat them if they refused to sell drugs or sent them on assignments to beat others to prove their worthiness to become Pagans.

"Witness 1," for example, said Mr. Overly sent him and another prospect to "ball-bat" a former Pagan known as "Joker," although the assault was never carried out because the man didn't emerge from his house as planned.

The ring had an interest in guns, too. One of the men charged, William Snyder, 57, of Ruffsdale, testified that he built four 9 mm machine guns, which another witness indicated Mr. Overly wanted to buy.

Troopers bought the guns in 2007 to keep them from falling into Mr. Overly's hands.

Mr. Snyder is charged with the illegal sale of machine guns.

In all, five local men have been arrested and released pending trial. Police are hunting for Mr. Overly, who is also wanted for violating the terms of his probation in connection with snorting cocaine while on parole for a Rostraver assault.

Police are also looking for Homero Villegas, 27, of Georgia, who they say is the Atlanta drug supplier.

While the current case sheds new light on the Pagans, the gang has a long history in Western Pennsylvania and particularly in Westmoreland County.

Several biker gangs dominate in the U.S.: the Pagans, the Hell's Angels, the Outlaws, the Bandidos and the Warlocks. The Pagans, who got their start in Maryland in 1959 and spread to Pennsylvania in the 1960s, have always been the most powerful gang here.

In the 1980s, the Pittsburgh FBI largely dismantled them with two major federal prosecutions using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.