According to an Associated Press report, former Mongols motorcyle club president Ruben “Doc” Cavazos pleaded guilty in January to a single RICO Act count that could land him in prison for 20 years. The plea, disclosed in court papers filed June 29, will result in Cavazos being sentenced in February, 2010. Cavazos was arrested last October in a massive government sweep of Mongol chapters in six states.
A controversial figure even within the Mongols, Cavazos gained his “Doc” moniker from working as an X-ray technician at L.A. County General-USC Medical Center. A year ago Cavazos, a former member of Highland Park's Avenues gang, published his autobiography, Honor Few, Fear None: The Life and Times of a Mongol.
A number of the 79 members of the Southern California-based, mostly
Latino gang who have been indicted on charges ranging from drug
trafficking to murder have pleaded guilty, the AP says. A 177-page
federal indictment alleges that gang members colluded with the Mexican
Mafia to enforce that group's claim over drug territories and its
authority to levy “taxes” on drug dealers.
On the day of the
October raids, Thomas O'Brien, U.S. Attorney for California's Central
District, presided over a heavily covered event in downtown L.A., in
which Mongol motorcycles were displayed, draped with the gang's colors.
The group has suffered the peculiar ignominy of being barred by a
federal judge from displaying its own insignia on clothing and on its Web site.
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