Santa Ana, California. (November 2, 2018) BTN — A veteran
federal agent who spent years undercover after infiltrating the Mongols Motorcycle
Club offered his first-hand account Thursday of a secretive culture of violence
and intimidation during testimony in an ongoing federal racketeering trial.
The three years that Darrin Kozlowski and three other U.S.
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Officers spent embedded in the outlaw
motorcycle club already has led to guilty pleas from 77 members of the Mongols.
Now, the since-retired special agents’ efforts are at the center of the
government’s attempts to seize legal control over the Mongols’ trademark name,
a move that would bar the bikers from wearing the patches that now adorn their
vests.
Related | Mongols MC: Feds going after clubs colors at racketeering trial
During a federal trial in Santa Ana this week, prosecutors
have portrayed the Mongols as a criminal organization that encourages and
rewards members who take part in violent, at-times deadly assaults, including
riots in Laughlin, Nev. and a melee at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon near Palm
Springs in 2002, and violent attacks in bars or restaurants in more recent
years in Hollywood, Pasadena, Merced, La Mirada, Wilmington and Riverside.
Kozlowski, who previously infiltrated a Hollywood chapter of
the Vagos motorcycle club and an East Coast chapter of the Warlocks motorcycle
club, worked his way up the ranks of the Cypress Park chapter of the Mongols
between 2005 and 2008, adopting the persona of “Dirty Dan” and telling other
members of the club that he had Mafia ties fostered while growing up in
Chicago.
It was a risky move, Kozlowski acknowledged during his
testimony, particularly since he had already infiltrated one outlaw motorcycle
club in Southern California. A photo of Kozlowski had also been printed in a
book written by William Queen, a since-retired ATF agent who had infiltrated
the Mongols years earlier, and whose work was well known throughout the
motorcycle gang.
Kozlowski testified to buying crystal methamphetamine from
several members of the Mongols, to being present for several brawls in clubs or
parking lots, to helping members legally barred from having firearms hide their
guns and to being told that other members of the club that they had killed
members of the Hells Angels, whose bloody rivalry with the Mongols dates back
to the 1970s.
“Members would often talk about doing things to elevate
themselves within the Mongols by doing these acts of violence,” Kozlowski said.
“It was talked about as a badge of honor.”
Kozlowski said some members of the motorcycle club were
initially suspicious of him and the other undercover agents, forcing them to
take polygraph tests before being allowed to join. He described for jurors the
inner workings of the club, including detailing the various patches members can
acquire for a variety of actions, from assaults and even murders of rivals to
explicit sexual conquests.
To bolster his false identity, Kozlowski said he once
offered to fly his chapter president to Chicago for a tour of what he claimed
were his childhood neighborhoods. The chapter president unexpectedly accepted
the invitation, Kozlowski testified, and law enforcement officials were forced
to set up a dinner in Chicago with other agents posing as Italian organized
crime bosses who told the Mongols leader they had worked with Kozlowski on past
criminal endeavors.
There were several times Kozlowski said he believed the
other Mongols were on the verge of realizing he was a law enforcement officer.
He recalled once entering the home of Mongols leadership to see several members
holding Queen’s book and looking at the photographs, and immediately believing
he had been set up before realizing it was simply a coincidence. The president
of his chapter eventually saw the photo of Kozlowski in the book, and had to be
convinced it wasn’t him.
“Why would a member of the ATF who infiltrated the Vagos in
this area come back and be a member of the Mongols?” Kozlowski testified about
telling his chapter president.
Attorney Joseph Yanny, who is representing the Mongols, has
acknowledged that members of the club broke the law, but told jurors that those
individuals had been kicked out for their actions. On other occasions, Yanny
told jurors, the club members acted in self-defense or were induced into drug
deals by undercover agents.
Kozlowski testified that during his time with the motorcycle
club he never saw anyone kicked out for illegal behavior, including individuals
convicted of felonies. Prosecutors have previously indicated that if they are
successful in their efforts to gain legal control over the Mongols’ trademark,
they could literally take the jacket off the bikers backs anywhere in the
country. The club traces its roots to Montebello in the 1970s.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who is presiding over
the trial, was angered late Thursday morning when four bikers, including one
wearing sunglasses, appeared in the courtroom. The judge initially believed
that it was a violation of an agreement the club had made to only have two of
its members in the courtroom at a time, but learned that two of the visitors
were from other motorcycle clubs.
Carter, who noted that 40 to 50 Mongol members attended some
pretrial hearings, said anyone has a right to watch the trial. But he also made
clear that for every member of the Mongol’s who attends, he will have an equal
number of U.S. Marshal’s in the courtroom.
“You can have 50 people in here, but I’ll match them,”
Carter warned the clubs leaders. “My jury is not going to be intimidated.”
