The Mongols Motorcycle Club might be trying to make inroads into Michigan. According to sources in law enforcement, members of the Mongols showed up at a July 4th biker rally held in southern Michigan. The state of Michigan has long been a hub of Midwest biker gang activity and successful in keeping west coast clubs from gaining traction in the region. Founded in Montebello, California in 1969, the Mongols maintain chapters in 14 states across the country and have planted flags in 11 separate international outposts. Currently, the closest Mongols chapters to Michigan are in New York and Pennsylvania. “We’re keeping tabs on the situation, their presence (at the Fourth of July rally) raised some eyebrows,” one state police source in Michigan said. The two biggest “One Percenter” motorcycle clubs in Michigan are the Outlaws and the Highwaymen. Like the Mongols, the Outlaws have traditional rivals in the Hells Angels. The Outlaws, which housed its international headquarters in Michigan in the 1980s and 1990s, declared war on the west coast-based Hells Angels in the 1970s with a triple murder of three Hells Angels from the club’s first east coast chapter out of New York. Besides the Outlaws and the Highwaymen, other prominent biker gangs in Michigan include the Devils Diciples, the Forbidden Wheels, the Iron Coffins, the Freedom Riders, the Liberty Riders, the Avengers, the Renegades and the Vigilantes. The Hells Angels have never had a chapter in Michigan, only coming as close as Ohio. Federal prosecutors in Michigan have indicted and convicted sitting administrations in the Outlaws, the Highwaymen and the Devil’s Diciples in the past decade.
