Mongol Motorcycle Club
The federal government arrested hundreds of members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club throughout the United States, including 77 members from various chapters in Southern California, including Mongols National President Ruben Cavazos. The government alleged that the Mongols Motorcycle Club was a Racketeering Criminal Enterprise which used violence to aid its activities and drug trafficking to fund its operations.
Portraying the case as one of the most significant Racketeering cases in the United States, and after ATF agents had spent months and, in one case years, undercover with the Club, the Los Angeles-based case ended with little fanfare as Mr. Kaloyanides and other defense counsel successfully negotiated minimal sentences for clients. In particular, the evidence demonstrated that the Mongols Motorcycle Club was not a criminal enterprise but that some members were using the club as a means of committing relatively minor drug offenses. In the case of Mr. Kaloyanides’s client, the government alleged criminal conduct that subjected the client to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. Mr. Kaloyanides successfully negotiated a 30 month deal for a relatively minor drug transaction.
In Operation Knockout, the United States Government swept in and arrested nearly the entire Hawaiian Gardens gang, alleging Racketeering and drug trafficking offenses. Once again, when his client was facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, Mr. Kaloyanides was able to demonstrate the weakness in the government’s case and successfully negotiated a deal for his client for a minor drug related offense: use of a telecommunications device in furtherance of a drug crime. Mr. Kaloyanides’s client, whose sentence is still pending, faces approximately 3 years in prison instead of the exposure of over 10 years as charged in the Indictment.
