Complex sentence: The members, searching for others like themselves, began to contact each other, and came together, but before they had time to do more than introduce themselves, they were already being chased, exploited, hunted, and were wanted by the police.
Split into simpler sentences: The members, searching for others like themselves, began to contact each other. They came together, but before they had time to do more than introduce themselves, they were already being chased, exploited, hunted, and were wanted by the police.