28 biker gang members rounded up and charged with rioting in Florida, cops say
Twenty-eight members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club were arrested July 2, and three more are being sought for arrest, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.
Aggravated rioting is a second-degree felony that can result in a 15-year prison sentence, officials said.
The suspects are accused of participating in a March 8 brawl at a RaceTrac gas station in New Smyrna Beach that coincided with the 84th Annual Daytona Beach Bike Week in nearby Daytona Beach. The 10-day event is billed as 'one of the world's largest motorcycle events.'
'According to witnesses, a large group of motorcyclists engaged in a fight in the parking lot, which eventually escalated into gunfire,' New Smyrna Beach police said in a March 10 news release. 'Two victims sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds and were treated at local hospitals.'
The brawl involved a dispute between the Mongols and a rival gang called the Warlocks, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.
Many of the witnesses were 'uncooperative' with investigators, police said.
Surveillance video from the gas station revealed seven people were armed with guns and four fired shots, officials said.
In addition to the arrests, search warrants were executed at 'the Mongols Clubhouse in Edgewater, four homes in Volusia County, three homes in Brevard County, two homes in Miami-Dade County, one home in Chesterfield County, VA, one home in Palm Beach County, and two homes in Polk County,' Volusia County officials said.
The searches were conducted with the help of FBI agents and law enforcement officers from departments across the Southeast, the sheriff's office said.
'This is just the beginning of the storm. ... Please, do not think for a minute that the Mongols ... is just these great people riding around having fun,' Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
'The Mongols are recognized nationally as a domestic terroristic gang involved in extortion, murder, violent crime, theft, burglary, drugs and they're recognized internationally. So today, law enforcement takes back the streets.'
The Mongols club is considered an 'outlaw motorcycle gang' with members serving as 'conduits for criminal enterprises,' including cross-border drug smuggling, the Department of Justice reports.
New Smyrna Beach is about a 55-mile drive northeast from Orlando.
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