A newcomer to the Bay of Plenty club scene, the Mongol Nation, has become involved in more tit-for-tat conflict with a rival club where gunshots were fired.
The Mongols are one of the mostIt didn’t take long for conflict to arise .
Earlier this year, a barbershop linked to the Mongols was hit by a suspicious fire and, in retaliation, nearly 100 bullets were fired at a home of a Mongrel Mob leader.
While a truce of sorts has been reached between the Mongols and Mongrel Mob, simmering tensions between the Mongols – marked by their distinctive symbol of Genghis Khan riding a motorcycle – and the Greazy Dogs MC are close to boiling point.
A large number of Greazy Dogs recently turned up at the Matapihi home of a senior Mongol – the sergeant-at-arms known as “Wolf” – carrying firearms and threatening him. A fight broke out in which neighbours reported hearing gunshots, although no one was shot and police did not find any bullet or shell casings left behind.
Vastly outnumbered, the Mongol and his family – including a heavily pregnant woman – fled by jumping over a high fence at the back of the property. One of the family members suffered a badly fractured ankle from the high drop.
The Mongol member is alleged to have been carrying two shotguns with him, which he stashed in the property of a frightened neighbour for safekeeping.
He was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and declined bail when he appeared in the Tauranga District Court last week.
The police investigation is ongoing to identify the Greazy Dogs involved.
The terrifying confrontation is the latest in a string of incidents in which the Mongols have been targeted by rivals since establishing themselves in the Bay of Plenty last year.
A few months before the barber shop was vandalised and burned, three cars parked outside the Papamoa home where senior Mongols were living were destroyed in a suspicious fire.
The arrival of the Mongols – who went on to “patch over” disaffected members of their arch rivals, the Hells Angels, in Christchurch – comes at a time of unprecedented growth in club numbers.
Police data shows club members now number more than 7000 for the first time, up 50 per cent between December 2016 and December 2019. In the Bay of Plenty alone there are 1439 club members – the most of any police district.
Profits from New Zealand’s burgeoning and lucrative methamphetamine market is also a factor in the spike in club numbers, police allege.
“New Zealand isn’t a big place. Everyone was sharing the market, taking their slice of the pie,” Detective Superintendent Greg Williams said last year.
“But we’ve seen gang numbers grow, arming up [with firearms], which shows that something has changed.”
The Mongols were first established in the United States in 1969 and spread to 12 other countries, including Australia recently where they quickly earned a reputation for ruthless violence.
Law enforcement spokesmen consider the Mongols to be the “most violent and dangerous” motorcycle club in the US. A decade-long prosecution ended in December 2018 with a Californian jury finding the Mongol Nation to be a criminal enterprise guilty of racketeering, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder and drug dealing.
The case was the result of an investigation, Operation Black Rain, in which four undercover agents successfully infiltrated the Mongols to become full-patch members.
Four other agents also went undercover to pose as their girlfriends. The undercover agents developed and maintained biker personas, and they had to undergo rigorous scrutiny by the Mongols to be accepted as members.
When one of the agents received his patch, one of the club’s members said: “Being a Mongol promises you one of two things – death or prison.”
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Source: NZ Herald