The Mongols Motorcycle Club, considered one of the nation's most violent biker gangs, astonished authorities last fall when it quietly chartered the first of what it now claims are four chapters in Oregon. Flying its colors in Portland, Eugene, Medford and Bend without permission of the state's other outlaw motorcycle clubs defies a long-held code of biker conduct, an insult that police worry will provoke a turf war. Oregon's five other outlaw motorcycle clubs, classified as gangs by the state's attorney general, have enjoyed a recent lull in their long conflict with police. Some of those bikers have spent the past few years on the offensive, suing police when they feel their civil rights have been trampled.
The Mongols' reputation preceded them. For 30 years, the California-based club has fought a bloody war with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. The public got a glimpse in 2002, when surveillance cameras caught bikers clashing with knives, guns and hand tools at Harrah's Casino in Laughlin, Nev., leaving two Angels and a Mongol dead.
Retired federal agent Billy Queen, who rode undercover with the Mongols for two years leading up to the Laughlin riot, said the club's sudden appearance in Oregon means trouble. "The Mongols want to be No. 1; they want to be known as the baddest biker club rollin' out there," said Queen, whose work helped convict 53 Mongols of crimes ranging from motorcycle theft to murder. The club's leadership has combed the barrios of East L.A., Queen said, recruiting members of street gangs -- even those without motorcycles -- "to beef the numbers up and take on the Hells Angels."
Although Oregon's Mongols claim more than two dozen members, criminal intelligence experts have counted fewer than 20 -- and that number includes associates. The club's North American membership has swelled from about 350 to 750 in the past six years, according to Queen. By comparison, police say the Hells Angels number about 3,600 worldwide.
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