61 members of the Mongol Motorcycle Club have been arrested across the western United States on racketeering charges.

61 members of the Mongol Motorcycle Club have been arrested across the western United States on racketeering charges.Members of the California-based group, which boasts around 600 members and has offshoots in Canada and Italy, claim it is simply a social club.But federal investigators say it is a criminal gang involved in murder, torture and drug trafficking."This is one of those celebrated investigations in which the organisation from top to bottom has been charged and targeted," said Michael Sullivan, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). "It puts a stake in the heart of the Mongols."A 177-page indictment alleges that the group, which is mostly Latino, engages routinely in violence and other crime - attacking black people, committing robberies, and stealing motorcycles and stealing credit card account information.The ATF said four undercover agents managed to be accepted as full Mongol members after winning the gang's trust over a period of months.John Torres, the ATF agent in charge in Los Angeles, described the pivotal role his organization's four undercover agents played in the investigation.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.
The agents were required to live away from their real families for days in homes to make it look like they lived a Mongols lifestyle.Four undercover women ATF agents were also involved, pretending to be their biker girlfriends and attending parties with the agents. Women are not allowed to be full members of the gang.Among those arrested were the gang's former national president Ruben Cavazos, who wrote memoirs called "Honor Few, Fear None: The Life and Times of a Mongol" earlier this year.
Roger Pinney, a former Mongols leader, claimed that Cavazos was the problem, not the club. The latter was beginning to "clean up its act", he claimed.But he insisted the arrests would not kill off the Mongols. "This is all going to blow over. The Mongols aren't going away, and neither are the Hells Angels," he said.US Attorney Thomas O'Brien has asked for an injunction that would seize the Mongols' trademarked name and allow police to confiscate any jacket bearing the gang's name or emblem.