The Mongols, who feared that losing the rights to their logo a brawny Genghis Khan-like man sporting a queue and sunglasses and riding a chopper while brandishing a sword would have severe consequences, hailed the ruling as not just a victory for the group, but for other biker clubs that law enforcement authorities have tried to take down. There could be a particular concern that the defense lawyer was unwittingly receiving directions from someone aligned with the government, he said. On December 5, 1969, the Mongols Motorcycle Club was founded in Montebello, California. And he was tireless, Mr. DAlesio said. David Santillan, the national president of the Mongols, pumped his fist into the air as the decision was read before a courtroom audience that included several Mongols members. Racketeering conspiracy; assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering; kidnapping resulting in death of Stephen Cole. Both Mr. Santillan, a Mongols member for almost 25 years who was voted out of the club in July, and the agent, John Ciccone, who retired in December after 32 years at the A.T.F., deny that Mr. Santillan was acting as an informant during the trial, though Mr. Ciccones sworn declaration does not address whether Mr. Santillan had acted as a confidential informant in the past. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, the Clarksville Mongols were a violent motorcycle gang operating in and around the city of Clarksville. The club is headquartered in Southern California and was originally formed in Montebello, California, in 1969. He was ready, he said, to get treatment for his drug and alcohol addictions. They called themselves "outlaws" and "one-percenters" - referring to a comment by the American Motorcyclist Association that 99% of motorcyclists were law abiding citizens, implying that one percent were not. [24] 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. The club's name of the "Mongols" was inspired by Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire. Never in my life have I ever implicated anybody in the club for some kind of nefarious activity. Official websites use .gov Mayor R. Rex Parris said he wants to keep the Mongols out because they "are engaged in domestic terrorismand they kill our children. Mongols attorney Joe Yanny says his clients want their 2018 racketeering conviction thrown out or at the very least a new trial. After Martinez was connected to the Mongols chapter in Montebello, California, the judge added a special gang allegation to the murder charge. 22 talking about this. 10 Their Motto Is Bigger, Better, Stronger! Fort Worth, Texas (September 22, 2018) BSB On Saturday night, members of the Mongols motorcycle club stood outside a bar in the Fort Worth Stockyards, talking with bar employees and passersby. The Mongols Motorcycle Club was established on December 5, 1969 in Montebello, California, a city just east of East Los Angeles. Mr. Santillan provided records from the cases to show he had been convicted of offenses including driving under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident and disturbing the peace, and that he had been arrested, fined and put on probation. The text reads in part: "You guys need to see this video" and that David "has been working with the government is all [sic] entire time" and that's "why he felt so comfortable to do what he does he is simply a CI In other words he is a rat.". Big, bad, and dangerous to know, the Mongols are exactly the kind of guys your mother warned you about. Racketeering conspiracy; assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering; kidnapping resulting in the death of Stephen Cole; kidnapping of Stephen Cole in aid of racketeering; and the murder of Stephen Cole in aid of racketeering. ", 3 Kansas City officers shot while executing search warrant, chief says, Roof collapses at nonprofit South LA clinic, causing $500K in damage, Video shows group of sharks in feeding frenzy off Louisiana coast. The crews shared a clubhouse in Tampa, he said. Both Mr. Ciccone and the U.S. Attorneys Office declined to comment on the motion beyond the government response filed in court, which said the petition for a new trial was replete with false and unsupported allegations and speculation.. Life in prison with a mandatory minimum sentence of life for kidnapping and murder, and seven years for the firearms offense to be served consecutive to all other sentences. In court Monday, prosecutors told Judge David O. Carter that retired ATF agent Ciccone will testify that Santillan was never an informant. Nov. 21, 2018. According to the website One Percenters Bikers, this term came to be in response to statement made in 1947 by the American Motorcycle Association that 99% of motorcyclists are law-abiding citizens; clubs such as the Hells Angels, the Outlaws, and the Mongols refer to themselves as the other "1%.". Evidence at trial demonstrated that the Clarksville Mongols were responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Stephanie Bradley, as well as the separate kidnapping and murder of Stephen Cole. We will continue to work tirelessly with our local, state, and federal partners to combat violent crime and maintain public safety within our communities.. Copyright 2023 KABC Television, LLC. To get the thrills without the spills, youll need to invest in hardware thats up to the challenge. The club is headquartered in Southern California and was originally formed in Montebello, California, in 1969. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. He upheld our constitutional rights, not only as the Mongols motorcycle club, but as citizens, Mr. Santillan said. The government, in its own appeal, is making another run at the Mongols logo, renewing an earlier request for a narrower forfeiture order that would take away the clubs right to trademark exclusivity over the emblem. This verdict officially ends an era of drug-trafficking, violence, and intimidation inflicted on the people of Clarksville by the Clarksville Mongols, said U.S. Attorney Mark H. Wildasin for the Middle District of Tennessee. That is the conviction and fine the Mongols are now trying to have set aside. Judge Carters ruling was drawn from a flood of legal opinions that were submitted by academics, law firms and think tanks. Yanny played a clip from a National Geographic show segment on the Mongols in court as evidence of their relationship. A petition for a new trial and reversal of the half-million-dollar fine, which is scheduled for an initial hearing on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Calif., claims that Mr. Santillan, 52, covertly cooperated for years with a special agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. [2] The Mongols' main presence lies in Southern California, but they also have chapters nationwide in 14 states and internationally in 11 countries. Things started to take a turn at the end of World War II. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, the Clarksville Mongols were a violent motorcycle gang operating in and around the city of Clarksville. He said the office was considering an appeal. Grow your brand authentically by sharing brand content with the internets creators. The Mongols Motorcycle Club, sometimes called the Mongols Nation or Mongol Brotherhood, is a "one-percenter" outlaw motorcycle club. Such an order would allow anyone to use the image. "I assumed it was going to be her, so we videotaped," Annie Santillan tells Eyewitness News. The club is headquartered in Southern California and was originally formed in Montebello, California, in 1969. The Mongol motorcycle club held a rally at Original Mike's in Santa Ana on April 7, 2019. In another instance, in 2014, Mr. Santillan and his wife got into a brawl with other people at a racetrack, the Mongols filing says. [3][4][5][6], 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. Thanks for contacting us. [T]hey can be very nice individuals but as a whole they're involved in criminal activity, and it's important that people understand that. The main back patches, or rockers, are earned in three steps, starting with the bottom one that indicates the location of the club, followed by the middle Genghis Khan patch, and finally the top Mongols patch, indicating full Mongol membership. A federal judge in California has refused to order the Mongols motorcycle gang to forfeit its trademarked logo. ", Rules That Members Of The Mongols Bike Gang Have To Follow. #MONGOLSMC #MONGOLS #LILDAVEFor more than two decades, federal law enforcement authorities pursued the Mongols, a notorious motorcycle club whose members had. and other law enforcement agencies have long gone after biker organizations by co-opting members as informants and infiltrating the groups with their own undercover agents. 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After testifying briefly in court Monday, Annie told Eyewitness News that her husband has never been a confidential informant and that she only sent the text message because she wanted to destroy him in the eyes of the Mongols. There was nothing nefarious about it.". After one year he's done and he can't protect me, so we have to have an exit strategy.". [20] Martinez shot Diamond after the officer turned away from the doorway following the breaching procedure. Mr. Santillan has acknowledged that he talked often with Mr. Ciccone for a period of years, usually in the presence of other Mongols members. Per One Percenter Bikers, the patches are in the club colors of black and white, and the main patch consists of a drawing of Genghis Khan riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Mongols MC: The club talks about being in Fort Worth. The unusual legal imbroglio provides a rare glimpse into the hidden and volatile politics of the outlaw motorcycle club and the degree to which law enforcement and its targets may engage in limited cooperation when it is seen as mutually beneficial. It was the first time that a Muslim clan-based crime syndicate in Germany became active in the field of outlaw motorcycle clubs. When Ling asked "What if I refused?" "He was afraid, and I think he turned on his loyalty to the club to protect himself. The Mongols described their presence in Southern California as a "stronghold" and note that "[a]t the time and even now there were really no other 1%er clubs co-existing in these areas." The group has about 1,200 members in the United States, most of them Hispanic, and numerous chapters around the world. His favorite car is "any Bugatti" and he's a die hard Harley Davidson fan. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The judge will most likely consider a series of procedural matters on Monday, lawyers said, with additional hearings expected before any final ruling. The Mongols club is named for Genghis Khan's Mongol army, which the website characterized as "small in numbers with a lot of heart" who "dominated and decimated their enemies." One example given is after a Mongol member committed a murder, the club called a Code 55,instructing members to hide all affiliation, including stopping wearing their vests and patches, carrying weapons, or interacting with law enforcement. Ms. Santillan said that she now felt horrible about disclosing the communications and that her husband was not, in fact, an informant. LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- There's a new twist in a federal case already marked by murder and mayhem. 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. Come over and get in the know with everything happening in the Biker Scene. The Mongols member interviewed by Lisa Ling for CNN, identified only by his first name, Dave, said of the patches, "For me, it's total commitment to this club. This is a picture of three members of the Mongols gang holding up gun. On Wednesday, defense attorney Joe Yanny and Santillan went back and forth over Santillan's relationship with retired Montebello police officer Christopher Cervantes and Ciccone. The belief that as long as they're not hurting anybody, they should be able to do what they please." The biker group hopes to set aside a $500,000 racketeering conviction, alleging that its former president cooperated with the government during a trial. Michael Tyrone Delaney for The New York Times. There is no way hes gotten away with these incidents without more significant legal repercussions unless someone in law enforcement is in the background greasing the slides for him, Mr. Yanny said. The current national leaders of the Mongols said they were convinced that the clubs former president, who controlled the Mongols defense team, had acted improperly. The company manufactured them from 1999 all the way up until 2017. Copyright 2023 KABC Television, LLC. In their petition, the Mongols argue that Mr. Santillan could have been pressured to leak strategy and other information to the government as a result of lenient treatment the defense claimed he received during his brushes with the law. [37], In 2016 the last Mongols chapter in Bremen closed.[38]. Members from the Mongols started off with a few people. Yanny said they had more than just casual run-ins. Santillan says he ran into Ciccone when he went to pick up some Mongols property that had been released after the trial. The Mongols MC patches Motorcycle Club, sometimes called the Mongols Nation or Mongol Brotherhood, is a "one-percenter" outlaw motorcycle club. SANTA ANA, Calif. Nearly two months after a federal jury decided that a notorious motorcycle club must forfeit the rights to its trademarked emblem, a judge on Thursday nullified the verdict, finding that seizure of the intellectual property was unconstitutional. During the almost 13 years he led the Mongols, Mr. Santillan appeared to steer the organization away from its past recruitment of Mexican criminal gang members and a culture of total underworld activity that the feds feasted on, in terms of prosecutions, said William Dulaney, an expert on motorcycle groups who was formerly an associate professor of national security at the U.S. Air Forces Air Command and Staff College. Racketeering conspiracy; conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine; money laundering conspiracy; assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering; conspiracy to commit robbery affecting interstate commerce and robbery affecting interstate commerce; kidnapping; and firearm offenses. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Undercover agent exposes Hells Angels sex rules: A violent price to pay, Las Vegas biker gangs shootout possibly caused by prior shooting death, Seven hurt after rival biker gangs get in shootout on Nevada highway: cops, Inside the swinging 60s home where Dennis Hoppers marriage unraveled. Attorneys Kathryn Risinger and Chris Suedekum for the Middle District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case. As its ranks swelled, so did its notoriety. Clan members do not have motorcycle licences and drive around the city in cars. The Clarksville Mongols terrorized communities in Tennessee and Kentucky for far too long, said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Life in prison, and up to seven years for the firearms offense to be served consecutive to all other sentences. In 2008, Mongols member Christopher Ablett was convicted of the murder of Hells Angels President Mark Papa Guardado. The Mongols Motorcycle Club was formed in Southern California, and today, the West Coast is still the club's stronghold. ", "So, he gave me a heads up and that was it. He went on to explain, "That's one of the first questions we ask. Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan. [17] He was convicted of murder in aid of racketeering and three gun charges on February 23, 2012, in San Francisco. A federal jury convicted James Wesley Frazier, 34; Aelix Santiago, 34; Michael Forrester, 34; Jamie Hern, 43; William Boylston, 32; and Jason Meyerholz, 48, all of Clarksville, Tennessee, for charges including racketeering conspiracy. Donald Charles Davis, who writes the biker blog The Aging Rebel, said that he felt Judge Carters ruling was inevitable., The governments ambition was blatantly unconstitutional, Mr. Davis said. "I've never cooperated in any way, shape or form.". SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- Testimony resumed inside an Orange County federal courthouse on Wednesday morning for a hearing in which a judge will decide if the Mongols Motorcycle Club will get a new trial after being convicted of conspiracy and racketeering in 2018. [12], In January 2019, a California jury had ruled that federal prosecutors could strip the motorcycle club of its brand. 26. Police officers in conjunction with ATF agents and other agencies bring members of the Mongols outlaw motorcycle club into custody Tuesday morning at. In my opinion, the only reason the government brought this RICO case was to take another run at the patch, having failed each time in the past, said George L. Steele, a lawyer for the Mongols who is handling a separate appeal in the case. Now the Mongols want a new trial and say their former president was a confidential informant for the ATF. This gang has between five hundred and six hundred latinos and due to expansion of alliances, more members of the group will worry citizens because these type of members commit various crimes, they can increase the drug rate to others. Now the Mongols want a new trial and say their former president, David Santillan, was a confidential informant for the ATF. Calculations would be more than a hundred thousand. "He goes, I know you've been doing a bang-up job at the club, can't protect you from this point forward," Santillan recounted of their conversation. Annie tells Eyewitness News that her husband was "spinning out of control" and continued to cheat on her after the phone call. Cole was kidnapped and transported to a shed in Trenton, Kentucky, where he was interrogated, tortured, and beaten for hours prior to being murdered. READ ALSO | Was head of OC biker gang a 'rat'? Initially, both it and all the other clubs that started cropping up around the country were harmless. 11 talking about this. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. [18], 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. [7][8][9][10][11] Current[when?] There violence basically consists of serious crimes, every type of organised crime, murder, embezzlement, and drug dealing; which also includes buying drugs and guns. It ain't gonna happen. While affirming the jurys guilty verdicts on racketeering charges, the courts ruling nullifies the jurys finding that these marks are a core component of the Mongols decades-long pattern of murder, assault and drug trafficking, Mr. Mrozek said. 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