This reads like a crack-down on domestic terrorists to me, but I’m sure some would disagree. Federal and local agents infiltrated a motorcycle gang called the Mongols and made a substantial number of arrests, according to the AP:
The Mongols are primarily Latino and formed because the Hells Angels refused to allow Hispanic members.
Four ATF agents infiltrated the gang and were accepted as full members, a difficult process that requires winning the trust of the gang’s top leaders over a period of months, Hoffman said.
The agents were required to live away from their families in homes set up to make it look like they lived a Mongols lifestyle, Hoffman said. Four undercover women ATF agents also were involved in the operation, pretending to be biker girlfriends and attending parties with the agents; women are not allowed to become full members of the gang.
“If you go to a party all the time and you don’t ever bring a girl around, it’s kind of weird,” Hoffman said. “Someone might get suspicious.”
To be accepted in the gang, the ATF agents had to run errands and were subject to a background check by private detectives.
Nice commentary on profiling, social networks, and national security.
Ok – so where’s the rest of this article? I find it hard to believe they went through ALL this trouble just to infiltrate a gang. There had to be some criminal activity in which this gang was in fact participating… We’ll have to chat, because like I said, find it hard to believe they just wanted to make arrests for the sake of making arrests…
They were doing all kinds of illegal activity such as drug dealing and were also accused of homicides. Another interesting aspect of the story to me is that the Mongols used lie detector tests and background tests, but the LEO knew how to evade them.