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7/27/2019 Feds Bust Dozens of Mongols Motorcycle Gang Members (2008)
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Feds Bust Dozens of Mongols Motorcycle Gang Members
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
APOct. 21: Law enforcement officers investigate the home of Ruben Cavazos, former national president of the
Mongol motorcycle gang.
LOS ANGELES — An undercover investigation that put federal agents inside the
notorious Mongols motorcycle gang ended Tuesday with arrests of dozens of members
on warrants ranging from drug sales to murder and a move by the government to seize
the group's name.
Law enforcement agents said the operation could herald the end of the Mongol MotorcycleClub, a Southern California-based group of 600 or so members that claims to be a social club
but that prosecutors say is a criminal gang involved in murder, torture, drug trafficking and
other offenses.
"This is one of those celebrated investigations in which the organization from top to bottom
has been charged and targeted," said Michael Sullivan, acting director of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "It puts a stake in the heart of the Mongols."
Click here for photos.
At least 61 members were arrested under a racketeering indictment. Agents served 110 arrestwarrants across Southern California and in Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Ohio.
The 177-page indictment describes a tightly organized group routinely engaging in violence.
It alleges the group, which is mostly Latino, sometimes attacks black people and commits
robberies, steals motorcycles, and funds itself in part by stealing credit card account
information."It would allow law enforcement to seize the leather jackets right off their back,"
O'Brien said.
John Torres, the ATF agent in charge in Los Angeles, described the pivotal role his
organization's four undercover agents played in the investigation.
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The unidentified agents infiltrated the gang and were accepted as full members, a difficult
process that requires winning the trust of top leaders over a period of months, Torres said.
They had been given completely new identities, including Social Security numbers and life
stories. To be accepted into the Mongols, the agents had to pass a lie detector test and
background test carried out by private detectives.
Torres declined to comment on how they were able to pass the polygraph test. The agents
started out as "prospects" and, after carrying out errands for the gang, including security work
at Mongol parties, became "full-patch" members, meaning they could wear the group's
insignia.
The agents were required to live away from their real families for days on end in homes set up
to make it look like they lived a Mongols lifestyle, Torres said. Four undercover women ATF
agents also were involved, pretending to be biker girlfriends and attending parties with the
agents. Women are not allowed to be full members of the gang.
"If you go to a party all the time and you don't ever bring a girl around, it's kind of weird,"
ATF spokesman Mike Hoffman said. "Someone might get suspicious."
Torres said the agents never committed any crimes during their work.
Among those arrested were the gang's former national president Ruben Cavazos, who
authored a memoir of his life called "Honor Few, Fear None: The Life and Times of a
Mongol," published by HarperCollins in June.
Cavazos is currently employed as the night shift CAT scan technician at Los Angeles County-
USC Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda said.
Another former Mongols national president, Roger Pinney, alleged in an interview with The
Associated Press that Cavazos was the problem, not the club in general.
"They were just on the verge of cleaning up their act," said Pinney, who is no longer a
member and is serving probation from his role in an infamous brawl in Laughlin, Nevada, in
2002. "It's not a club-run deal, it's individuals who are the ones who decide to commit
crimes."
Pinney said he warned other club members that Cavazos was trouble.
"I always said he was robbing from the club," Pinney said. "He was throwing all the good
members out and bringing gang members in. He was trying to be a drug lord or something. He
was crazy."
Pinney doesn't believe the raid will force the Mongols off the road.
"This is all going to blow over. The Mongols aren't going away, and neither are the Hells
Angels," he said.
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Five Mongols members were sentenced this year to Nevada state prison and two got probation
for their roles in a deadly casino brawl with rival Hells Angels during a 2002 motorcycle rally
in the Colorado River resort town of Laughlin. Three people died in the fight.
Las Vegas police reported serving several warrants at homes in southern Nevada, where five
men were arrested and were being held in federal custody pending an initial appearance before a federal magistrate, said Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office
in Las Vegas.
In one instance, several Mongol members allegedly rode in a pack and attacked motorists near
Palm Springs, surrounding cars while one rider tried to stab the drivers with a knife.
One member was allowed to tattoo the gang's insignia on his head after he shot two members
of a rival gang, the indictment alleges. Mongols were also allegedly encouraged to engage in
sex with women at "wing parties," earning patches for various acts. Among them, Mongols
allegedly could earn their "wings" by engaging in sex with women with a venereal disease.
Agents seized dozens of chrome-covered Harley-Davidson motorcycles. One machine's oil
dipstick doubled as a serrated knife.
Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien also asked for an injunction that would seize the
Mongols' trademarked name. If the order is approved, any Mongol would no longer be able to
wear a jacket displaying the gang's name or emblem.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,442281,00.html