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Friday, April 5, 2024

Mongols MC members sentenced to federal prison

Nashville, Tennessee, USA (April 5, 2024) - After years of investigations, the last associate of the Clarksville chapter of the Mongols Motorcycle Club was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday after the Mongols were federally prosecuted for RICO conspiracy, murder, kidnapping, large-scale drug trafficking, money laundering and other crimes. James Hines, 47, was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months, said Henry C. Leventis, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee in a U.S. Attorney's Office media release Wednesday. All 18 of the defendants’ crimes stemmed from their involvement with the Clarksville chapter, and Hines was the last remaining defendant to be sentenced.
 


Authorities said in early 2015, some of the defendants were looking to transition from another motorcycle club and established the Clarksville chapter because, at the time, the Mongols did not occupy any territory in Tennessee. To show loyalty to the Mongols, those defendants committed a drive-by shooting and burned down the Sin City Motorcycle Club’s clubhouses in Clarksville and Nashville, according to investigators.



On May 22, 2015, the Mongols reportedly kidnapped and murdered a young mother because they thought she had stolen narcotics, money, and guns, and had knowledge about the items being stolen. She also reportedly spoke negatively to other people about the Mongols. On the day she was murdered, the Clarksville chapter reportedly kidnapped her at gunpoint and drove her to an area behind a secluded cemetery where they shot her. Her body was recovered more than a year after she was murdered, according to the DOJ.

The Mongols also allegedly engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity from 2015-2018. During that span, officials said the Mongols engaged in various crimes. In an effort to establish themselves as the area’s dominant motorcycle club, members of the Clarksville chapter, with help from Mongols MC members in California, participated in large-scale drug trafficking and money laundering activities; the members from California reportedly supplied the Clarksville chapter with over 50 pounds of almost 100% pure methamphetamine worth about $1 million to distribute around Tennessee and Kentucky, according to court documents.

SOURCE: U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Tennessee