The Mongols Motorcycle Club is considered a motorcycle gang by law enforcement and intelligence agencies in various countries internationally.[1][2][3] Mongols members have a long history in the illegal drugs trade (especially methamphetamine), money laundering, robbery, extortion, firearms violations, murder, and assault, among other crimes.[4][5][6][7][8] However, senior Mongols members as well as attorneys for the club deny that the club as a whole is a criminal enterprise and claim that the Mongols' bylaws prohibit criminals and drug users from being members.[9][10]
Australia
The Mongols expanded into Australia in 2013, establishing a presence on the Central Coast of New South Wales.[11] In October 2013, a deal was brokered to "patch over" the Finks ahead of a proposed ban on the Finks under anti-gang legislation in Queensland.[12] An estimated 90% of the Finks' members joined the Mongols.[11] The Mongols' "patch over" of the Finks was the largest ever motorcycle club amalgamation in Australia, and made the club one of the most powerful bikie gangs in the country, with a membership of around 400 and chapters in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.[12][11]
Germany
A German chapter of the Mongols MC was founded in Bremen by members of the local crime syndicate run by Lebanese immigrants in 2010. It was the first time that a Muslim clan-based crime syndicate in Germany became active in the field of outlaw motorcycle clubs.[13][14]
Organized crime in Bremen is dominated by the Miri-Clan, a large family of Lebanese origin with more than 10,000 members, who first migrated to Germany beginning in the late 1970s, and rose to national notoriety with a number of large-scale criminal activities in 2010.[15]
According to Andreas Weber, the state of Bremen's chief of criminal investigation, the new Mongols chapter is only nominally a motorcycle group. Clan members do not have motorcycle licences and drive around the city in cars. Presumably, they are interested in associating themselves with the U.S. motorcycle club primarily to profit from their infrastructure and trading channels in drug trafficking. The president of Mongols Bremen, "Mustafa B." accidentally killed himself with his bike as a novice licence holder briefly after the chapter's foundation. He was presumably succeeded by "Ibrahim M.", who is on record with 147 felonies ranging from grievous bodily harm to illegal possession of a weapon.[13]
Local daily newspaper Kölnische Rundschau reports that a further German Mongols chapter has become active in Cologne, which is a traditional Hells Angels area.[16]
Due to the negative publicity garnered by the Mongols in Germany, the club's European parent chapter expelled the German chapters in 2013. The German Mongols chapters refused to accept the expulsion, however, as they recognized on the United States "mother chapter" as an authority.[17]
In 2016, the last Mongols chapter in Bremen closed.[18]
Netherlands
On 11 October 2014, the Mongols announced the opening of a chapter in Amsterdam.[17] The club's Dutch faction was sponsored for membership by the Mongols in Germany.[19]
Members of the Mongols and the Hells Angels took part in a mass brawl in the bar of the Van der Valk Hotel in Rotterdam, during which several shots were fired, on the evening of 7 April 2016. The Royal Marechaussee and the Dienst Speciale Interventies attended the scene, and 23 bikers were arrested, some of whom were taken into custody at the hotel while others were apprehended in local parks. A knife and a firearm were seized. One motorcycle gang member suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, and police called it a "miracle" that no hotel staff or guests were injured in the fight.[20] The following day, police seized guns, ammunition, drugs and counterfeit currency during searches of 19 locations, resulting in two men being charged with the prohibited possession of weapons. Another man was arrested on suspicion of attempted aggravated assault and public violence in relation to the melee, on 19 April 2016.[21]
United States
The Mongols are one of the largest motorcycle clubs in the United States, with approximately 800 to 850 members and 70 chapters in 19 U.S. states.[22][23] The club is primarily based on the West Coast and in the Southwest of the country, with the majority of its membership consisting of Hispanic men from the Los Angeles area.[1] The club is involved in the transportation and distribution of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine, the interstate theft of stolen motorcycles, as well as violent crime including assault, intimidation and murder.[1] The club is allied with the Mexican Mafia and Sureño gangs,[23] as well as the Tijuana Cartel[22] and the Nazi Lowriders,[22] while rival gangs include the Bandidos, the Hells Angels, the Outlaws and Vagos.[22]
Arizona
The Mongols have four chapters in Arizona.[24]
California
The Mongols are listed as an outlaw motorcycle gang by the Attorney General of California. The club has 47 chapters and between 200 and 350 members in the state.[25] Of the approximately 47 motorcycle gangs active in California, the Mongols and Hells Angels are the two largest in membership size.[26] The Mongols are involved in the wholesale distribution of cocaine in the Los Angeles area.[27][28]
Members of the Glendale Mongols chapter, along with bikers from the San Bernardino chapter of the Hells Angels, the Straight Satans of Venice, and the Glendale Night Riders, committed a sexual assault on a fifteen year-old girl in August 1972. On April 5, 1973, Mongols member Ferman Benavides was among eleven motorcycle gang members convicted in Los Angeles of rape and sex perversion.[29][30]
Ermelindo Garcia, a member of the Mongols' Visalia chapter, was fatally shot twice during a fight with a group of men outside a bowling alley in Delano on August 15, 1974. One senior Mongols member criticized the Delano police after no arrests were made in Garcia's killing, and said that the club had been warned against retaliation. 200 Mongols members formed a mile-long funeral procession as Garcia was buried in a Visalia cemetery on August 19, 1974.[31]
On March 11, 1977, a large group of Mongols were involved in a mass brawl with nine Hells Angels members at a motorcycle swap meet at the Anaheim Convention Center, during which several Mongol bikers were seriously injured despite outnumbering the Angels.[32] A number of Mongols were arrested by police afterwards, while the Hells Angels contingent was able to escape.[33] The catalyst for the fight was a dispute between Chester "Bud" Green, a former member of the Richmond Hells Angels chapter who was expelled from the club after testifying against another member in a murder trial and who subsequently joined the Mongols, and a Mongol whose ex-wife Green was living with at the time.[34]
The Mongols' rivalry with the Hells Angels started when the club began wearing a California "bottom rocker" – a patch displayed on a biker's "colors" denoting the club's territory – after having previously listed only individual chapter locations on their "colors". As the dominant club in the state, the Hells Angels claimed exclusive rights to the California "rocker" and took offense to the Mongols' wearing of the patch.[35] When the Mongols objected to the Hells Angels' position, the Angels declared war on their rivals at a club meeting on July 7, 1977. The ensuing biker war would result in the deaths of four Mongols members and an innocent fifteen-year-old boy. On July 29, 1977, Mongols biker Allyn Bishop was shot and killed as he rode his motorcycle in Kern County.[36] On September 5, 1977, two members of the Mongols' San Diego chapter, sergeant-at-arms Raymond "Jingles" Smith and chapter president Emerson "Redbeard" Morris, were ambushed by a three-man "hit team" – allegedly consisting of San Diego Hells Angels bikers "Gorgeous" Guy Russell Castiglione, James "Brett" Eaton, and Raymond "Fat Ray" Piltz – in a drive-by shooting involving AR-15 style rifles on Interstate 15 near Escondido.[37] Morris died at the scene while Smith died at Palomar Medical Center. The two bikers' spouses, who were riding on the back of their motorcycles, were wounded; Morris' wife Delores was left paralyzed.[38]
In 1998, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent William Queen infiltrated the club, eventually becoming a full-patch member and rising to the rank of chapter vice-president using the undercover alias of Billy St. John. In April 2000, based on evidence gathered during Queen's 28-month undercover time with the club, 54 Mongols were arrested. All but one of the accused were later convicted of crimes, including drug trafficking, motorcycle theft, and conspiracy to commit murder.[39]
In order to bolster their membership, the Mongols began recruiting members from Sureño street gangs during the 1990s. Although many of these newly recruited members did not own a motorcycle, which is in breach of the Mongols' bylaws, the club relaxed their standards in order to match the rival Hells Angels in numbers. Some East Los Angeles gang veterans joined the Mongols' enforcer squad and began wearing an "ELA Enforcer" patch. In January 2004, a group of Mongols took part in a narcotics transaction with members of the Bassett Grande street gang at a motel room in Arcadia, purchasing a wholesale quantity of methamphetamine to sell on the retail market. Afterwards, the bikers were invited by the Bassett Grande gang to attend a party in the same motel room. One of the Mongols, a former member of the 18th Street gang, was recognized as a former Sureño who had been marked for death and placed on the Mexican Mafia's "green light" list, which is circulated throughout county jails and state prisons in Southern California, for a breaking the Sureño code of conduct. He was killed and another Mongol was seriously wounded in a melee, while two other bikers ran from the scene. The two Mongols who fled were subsequently punished by the club for cowardice. On January 10, 2004, a Mongols member from San Jose, a Norteño area, was shot and killed after a confrontation with members of the Sangra Sureño gang in the parking lot of a motel in Rosemead. In the aftermath of the shooting, a suspect was detained by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) deputies, who also seized drugs and equipment from a methamphetamine lab being operated by the Sangra gang in a room at the motel.[35] Due to the Mongols' increasing presence in the drug market, the Mexican Mafia requested payment from the club.[23] In March 2004, Mexican Mafia "shot callers" sent out the message that the Sureños had sustained over $20,000 in loss of drug revenue and personal damages and ordered the Mongols to pay for the lost revenue, threatening to put the club's members on the "green light" list, making them a _target for murder by the Sureños in and out of custody.[35] The following month, the Mongols responded that they would refuse to pay extortion money to La Eme, causing a war which resulted in casualties on each side.[23][35] The conflict between the Mongols and the Mexican Mafia was ultimately resolved, and the gangs continue to cooperate in drug trafficking.[23]
Mongols member Christopher Ablett turned himself in to authorities in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on October 4, 2008, after going on the run for the murder of Hells Angels President Mark "Papa" Guardado in San Francisco, California, earlier that year. His bond was set at $5 million.[40] He was convicted of murder in aid of racketeering and three gun charges on February 23, 2012, in San Francisco.[41]
On October 28, 2014, in San Gabriel, California, Mongols member David Martinez allegedly shot and killed Pomona Police SWAT Team member Shaun Diamond. Diamond was shot in the back of the base of his neck with a shotgun during the service of a search warrant.[42] Martinez shot Diamond after the officer turned away from the doorway following the breaching procedure. Officer Diamond died at dawn, October 29, 2014, at Huntington Memorial Hospital. Judge M. L. Villar, at the preliminary hearing, added a special gang allegation to the capital murder charges after the prosecution connected him to a Mongols chapter in Montebello, California. His initial trial, which started in 2019, was deemed a mistrial after he was found not guilty of first-degree murder; a hung jury occurred with all other charges.[43] Martinez faces the death penalty if convicted.[44]
Operation Black Rain was an operation by the ATF in 2008 to stop alleged criminal activity within the Mongols.[45] On October 21, 2008, 38 members, including Ruben "Doc" Cavazos, were taken into Federal custody after four ATF agents infiltrated the group for a second time, becoming full patch members. 110 arrest warrants and 160 search warrants were issued in California, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada, Washington, and Oregon.[46] On October 23, 2008, US District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper granted an injunction that prohibits club members, their family members and associates from wearing, licensing, selling, or distributing the logo, which typically depicts the profile of a Mongolian warrior wearing sunglasses, because according to the police, they use the logo and names as an identity and as a form of intimidation to fulfill their goals. Prosecutors requested the injunction after authorities arrested dozens of Mongols under a racketeering indictment.[47][48] The club president Ruben Cavazos and others pleaded guilty to the racketeering charge, and Cavazos was sentenced to serve 14 years in the penitentiary. Cavazos was voted out of the club by its members on August 30, 2008.[49]
A planned weekend meeting in Lancaster, California, expected to draw 800 Mongols and their families, was blocked after city officials shut down and fenced off the hotel they had booked for the event, which coincided with the "Celebrate Downtown Lancaster" festival. The mayor had previously threatened to shut down the hotel over unpaid taxes if the agreement to host the Mongols was not canceled. An attorney for the Mongols said he planned to sue the city and the mayor, potentially for civil rights violations, after previously threatening to sue the hotel for breach of contract should they comply with the mayor's demands. Mayor R. Rex Parris said he wants to keep the Mongols out because they "are engaged in domestic terrorism...and they kill our children."[50] The television show America's Most Wanted had exclusive access to the operation, and broadcast behind-the-scenes footage of the many arrests.[51]
On May 5, 2018, members of the Hells Angels were attending a motorcycle wash fundraiser outside Zingos Café in Bakersfield when Mongols bikers arrived, prompting a confrontation between the rival clubs. Mongols associate Ricardo Viera fired an illegal pump-action pistol grip shotgun into a crowd of people, causing minor wounds to one person. Viera was then killed when he was shot several times by the owner of a legally-owned handgun. Viera's killer cooperated with the Bakersfield Police Department and was not arrested as "it does not appear future charges are forthcoming".[52] Three Mongols – Christopher Clay Wilson, Eliseo Ray Miranda and Arturo Desiderio – were subsequently arrested and charged with conspiracy, gang participation, attempted murder and assault.[53] Wilson pleaded no contest to an accessory charge in August 2018 and was sentenced to time served and three years' probation on January 18, 2019.[54]
Colorado
Four Mongols chapters have been founded in Colorado.[24]
Florida
The Mongols have several chapters in Florida, including in the Tampa Bay area.[55]
Nevada
The Mongols have established 5 chapters in Nevada.[25]
Tensions between the Mongols and the Hells Angels increased as the Mongols expanded into the Angels' home territory of Northern California.[23] In 2002, members of the Mongols and the Hells Angels had a confrontation at the Harrah's Laughlin Casino in Laughlin, Nevada, that left three bikers dead.[56] Mongol Anthony "Bronson" Barrera, 43, was stabbed to death and two Hells Angels – Jeramie Bell, 27, and Robert Tumelty, 50 – were shot to death. On February 23, 2007, Hells Angels members James Hannigan and Rodney Cox were sentenced to two years in prison for their respective roles in the incident. Cox and Hannigan were captured on videotape confronting Mongols inside the casino.
On December 20, 2008, a group of Mongols arrived at a Las Vegas chapel for the wedding of a fellow member, only to find a local chapter of Hells Angels there finishing a ceremony of their own. According to local news outlet KTNV Channel 13, the Hells Angels attacked the Mongols members, sending three to the hospital, two of whom suffered from stab wounds. No arrests were made, and local authorities report that they are looking for suspects involved in the attack.[57]
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is home to five Mongols chapters.[25] The club is involved in the retail-level distribution of methamphetamine and Mexican-produced marijuana in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas.[58]
Oregon
The Mongols established chapters in Oregon in 2007 and 2008, "astonishing" authorities, who described it as a breach of motorcycle club code of conduct, and who expected a turf war with rival motorcycle clubs to result.[59] The club has six chapters in the state.[24]
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