Mongols MC members shot at while riding

Tippecanoe County, Indiana, USA (September 21, 2023) - A man riding a motorcycle, later identified as Keylin Holly pulled out a handgun and allegedly shot at two other motorcyclist at an intersection. The victims reportedly told the man to stop following them when they stopped at the intersection the shooting took place, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Wednesday.

 

When police were on their way, they received more calls of shots fired in the area. According to an officer in the area at the time, Holly was wearing a denim vest with “Abolafia” in red and white lettering. Holly was riding his motorcycle behind two older men on motorcycles. The officer said he heard the two men tell Holly to stop following them.

When the bikers approached the intersection of 18th Street and Everett Street, the officer saw what looked like Holly shooting at the two motorcycles in front of him. According to Tippecanoe County Prosecutor's Office, Holly is a known member of the Abolafia Motorcycle Club. The people he's accused of shooting at are members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club.



Holly is charged with four counts each of attempted murder, aggravated battery and attempted battery with a deadly weapon, as well as unlawful carrying of a handgun, criminal recklessness and criminal organization activity.

He is being held in the Tippecanoe County Jail with $210,000 in bonds as of Wednesday evening, according to jail logs.

Feds want the Grim Reapers MC clubhouse

Evansville, Indiana USA (September 20, 2023) - After indicting and sentencing more than a dozen members of the Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club, the federal government is wanting to seize the MC's clubhouse. United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Zach Myers, filed a formal civil complaint in December, 2022 asking a judge to forfeit the building at located 1104 East Diamond Avenue in Evansville, Indiana “to the United States of America.”

 

The civil case, featured an amended complaint and the dropping of a defendant, is still working it's way through court system. The newest filing came on September 5, 2023. The amended complaint, issued in late June, says the building is “subject to forfeiture because it was used, or intended to be used, to commit, or to facilitate, the commission of drug-trafficking offenses.”

It’s the culmination of years of investigation. The feds kicked off the criminal portion of the case in November 2019, when members of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, among others obtained a search warrant and knocked down the Motorcycle Club’s front door.

RELATED | Former Grim Reapers MC Prez Sentenced

They reportedly seized 10 pounds of meth, 23 guns, $35,000 in cash and a couple of motorcycles. The dope alone reportedly had an estimated street value of more than $250,000. What followed next was a bunch of indictments over the coming months and now years. The latest sentence was handed down in February of this year.

Besides going after the Grim Reapers MC, the main defendant in the civil side of the case is former Grim Rreapers MC leader Gary Wayne Forston. He was sentenced in October to 16-and-a-half years in prison after he plead guilty to four of the 12 counts against him. He’s currently serving his sentence in Texarkana, Texas.

As part of Wayne's plea deal that he signed in July 2022 “Forston agreed that the defendant property was subject to forfeiture and consented to the forfeiture of his interest in the defendant property,” the amended complaint says. Prosecutors accuse Forston of living at the clubhouse while the dope ring was doing business. The feds want the court to block Grime Reapers MC members from using the building and ultimately hand it over to the U.S. government.

Mongols MC affiliates crash going to national event

Amberley, New Zeland (September 15, 2023) - Two people affiliated with the Mongols MC crashed on their way to Christchurch for a planned event. Detective Inspector Joel Syme said police were aware of a planned event in Christchurch this weekend involving members and associates of the Mongols MC.

On Friday morning, police were called to a crash involving two motorcycles travelling to the event. The crash on State Highway 1, north of Amberley, was reported to Police at 11:25 AM. “Nobody was injured and the road was not blocked.”



Syme said additional police staff would be deployed in the city over the weekend to “closely monitor the behaviour” of those attending the event. “Our expectations around these types of events are very clear and I can assure the community that we will have resources in place to respond to reports of unlawful behaviour.

Hells Angels MC Banned from Ponde Compound

South Australia (September 14, 2023) - Hells Angels members will be barred from a regular meeting place after state parliament passed a law designating the property a prescribed place. The Ponde compound, about 100km east of Adelaide, was home to a rock music festival until 2002 but will now be off bounds to club members after the government's latest move to block its use by the bikie gang.

 

"We do not want to see outlaw motorcycle gangs getting a hold back in South Australia," Attorney-General Kyam Maher told reporters on Thursday. "We will do everything that is in our power to make South Australians safer and that includes changing the law very quickly when we need to."

The High Court in August invalidated an attempt by the previous Liberal government to ban the bikies from Ponde, but Mr Maher was adamant his law would face no such obstacles as it amended the legislation itself and was not just a regulation. "What we've done through the passage of this legislation in parliament, is to make it as bulletproof as possible," he said.



The declaration of the site as a prescribed place means any members of a listed criminal organisation cannot visit. But the Law Society of South Australia criticised the bill, arguing it was based on a flawed regime. In a submission to Mr Maher, the society's president James Marsh said the law increased the risk that individuals could have their property unjustly confiscated.

"The society queries the justification in abrogating any citizen's right to procedural fairness," he wrote. Mr Maher said the society's representations "fell on deaf ears." "We will do absolutely everything we can to make sure bikies have as little influence in this state as possible," he said.

In 2019, police found a burnt-out car on the property that had been linked to a bashing murder. At one stage the government tried to seize the land as a criminal asset but later dropped that bid.