MONGOLS MC CALIFORNIA NATIONAL RUN 2016. CNN’s Lisa Ling covers this California motorcycle run to Palm Springs. She says “my heart is in mine stomach, it was intense and I never experienced anything like this!”
The Mongols Motorcycle Club, sometimes called the Mongol Nation or Mongol Brotherhood, is a “one-percenter” outlaw motorcycle club and alleged organized crime syndicate. The club is headquartered in southern California and was originally formed in Montebello, California, in 1969. Law enforcement officials estimate there are approximately 1000 to 1500 full-patched members (with the expansion in Australia in 2013). The Mongols main presence is in southern California, but also all over the United States with chapters in 14 states, as well as international chapters in 18 countries.
The Mongols members have had long-running confrontations with law enforcement concerning the illegal drugs trade (especially methamphetamine), money laundering, robbery, extortion, firearms violations, murder, and assault, among other crimes. Current club president David Santillan denies that the club as a whole is a criminal enterprise, and attorneys for the club state that it has changed its code of conduct to exclude drug abusers and criminals.
Incidents
In 1998, 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 various crimes including drug trafficking, motorcycle theft, and conspiracy to commit murder.
In 2002, members of the Mongols and the Hells Angels had a confrontation in Laughlin, Nevada, at the Harrah’s Laughlin Casino, that left three bikers dead. 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.
