Mongols motorcycle gang brought down by feds

MICHAEL WEBSTER: INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER OCT 21, 2008 at 10:30 PM PDT

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman Mike Hoffman says federal and local agents started serving 110 federal arrest warrants Tuesday morning in Southern California, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Ohio.

A federal indictment accuses members of the Mongols motorcycle gang of murder, attempted murder, drug trafficking, assault, procuring, money laundering and firearms violations.

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. Agents claim that anyone from now on seen wearing Mongol's colors will be detained and the colors confiscated.

Law enforcement agents said the operation could herald the end of the Mongol Motorcycle Club, 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."

61 members of the Mongols motorcycle gang are facing dozens of federal charges, thanks to the work of four undercover agents that infiltrated the gang. 

Undercover agents have helped police bring down the members of the Mongols motorcycle gang with dozens of federal criminal charges.

Four undercover ATF agents became fully inducted members of the gang during the three-year investigation. 

The spokesman says those arrested included the Mongols' former national president Ruben Cavazos.
U.S. attorney Tom O'Brien says the undercover agents were able to find out about the structure and leadership in the gang. O'Brien says gang leaders made the agents take a polygraph test before they could get in. 

Agents said over 80 motorcycles, cash, weapons, drugs were confiscated during the operation. According to federal law enforcement more arrests are expected.