Federal and local authorities in Reno and Las Vegas said Tuesday that 29 arrests had been made in Nevada as part of a multistate investigation of a motorcycle gang.
Five people arrested in Las Vegas on Tuesday were being held on federal charges of racketeering, conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine, Las Vegas police said.Police Lt. Dave Logue, head of the department's intelligence section, said arrests and searches had effectively shut down the Las Vegas and Henderson chapters of the Mongols motorcycle club.Authorities said Jason "Big Jay" Hull, 33; David "Lazy Dave" Padilla, 38; Ismael "Milo" Padilla, 33; William "Moreno" Ramirez, 38; and Harold "Face" Reynolds, 40, all of Las Vegas, were in custody pending a Wednesday hearing before a federal magistrate.
Another Las Vegas man, 43-year-old John "Sinister" Babcock, was being held on state charges of unlawful transfer of a firearm.Reno authorities said 23 people had been arrested in the area as part of its undercover investigation, and 14 others had been charged with crimes.Of those, six suspects, most affiliated with the Mongols, were arrested early Tuesday, said Tom Cannon, resident agent in charge of the Reno ATF office.Authorities neither specified charges or identified those arrested in the Reno area, but said more than 6 pounds of methamphetamine and 75 weapons had been seized.The arrests and seizures were part of a multistate roundup of Mongol members arrested under a federal racketeering indictment that included charges of murder, attempted murder, assault, gun and drug violations, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman said.U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien in California said he believed it to be the highest number of arrests of a motorcycle gang in the nation's history.Arrest and search warrants were being served across Southern California, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Ohio.Logue said none of the people arrested in Las Vegas were charged with murder. He said Las Vegas police helped the investigation in Nevada and other states by monitoring the activities of ATF agents who infiltrated the group and posed as members.Logue, head of the department's intelligence section, said leaders for the Mongols communicated using e-mail and text messaging, and met during regional and national motorcycle runs."Some would be West Coast runs, some would be national runs, and that's where the different leaders from the different states would come together and talk about business," Logue said.