it s the day before the mongol s national run to palm springs and espinoza s leather shop is the place to be. indy, the war vet we met at family fun day is one of many club members here to make adjustments to his vest. all right. put the east l.a. on the inside. okay. and take the bandanna out because my uniform i wore in iraq, i want to have that sewn in there. dave is here to get annie s patch sewn in before she joins him on the run. just like this. this is going to be perfect. i have a lot of questions about the status of bikers wives and girlfriends. not only do women wear patches declaring them property, i heard
that kind of alpha way, and i get it. i m not a man, but i get it. it doesn t get more alpha than hundreds of men who call themselves brothers riding on the open road. and i m going to experience it for myself. dave has invited me to join the mongols on their national run to palm springs. before you leave i want to give you something. you good with that? yeah. cool, come on. so i know you re going to go on a ride with us real soon here and just want to give you your first helmet, a jockey helmet, novelty helmet with the tags not used. nobody else has used this. thank you for that. this is your helmet. should i be nervous? not at all, you re with us. nothing to be nervous about at all. thank you. you re welcome. as soon as i pull out, a pass a mongol that s been pulled over
from racketeering to drug and weapons trafficking to murder. among the convicted was the club s national president at the time ruben cavazos who they alleged was the mastermind behind their criminal activities. he s since been ex-communicated from the club and lil dave stepped into his role. what i want to know is have they really cleaned up their act? hi dave, how are you? i m hot. good to see you. and if so, why does the fbi still classify the mongols as a violent gang? hey. here come more guys. for my first glimpse deeper into club life, i catch up with lil dave and a few of the guys at a local bike shop. how are you? i m lisa. tommy gun. nice to meet you. pleasure.
hundreds of members from all over the country will ride in a pact from los angeles to palm springs. then spend the weekend partying and taking care of club business. the national president lil dave is knee-deep in preparations. we got to run. just robbed the place. just kidding. [ laughter ] just a little biker humor. going to pick up some patches for the run and be patching some brothers that earned their right to become full fledged brothers in our club. at this national run, a few prospective members will receive a patch that signifies their full acceptance into the mongols. i asked dave for more details how the patches work. can you talk about the patches on the back of the vest? it s the mongols top rocker. the genghis khan that identifies the state from which the brother is from. and do you have to earn those? i mean, you earn them in
it doesn t get more alpha than hundreds of men who call themselves brothers riding on the open road. and i m going to experience it for myself. dave has invited me to join the mongols on their national run to palm springs. before you leave i want to give you something. you good with that? yeah. cool, come on. so i know you re going to go on a ride with us real soon here and just want to give you your first helmet, a jockey helmet, novelty helmet with the tags not used. nobody else has used this. thank you for that. this is your helmet. should i be nervous? not at all, you re with us. nothing to be nervous about at all. thank you. you re welcome. as soon as i pull out, i pass a mongol that s been pulled over on his bike by a cop the guys told me law enforcement has them under constant surveillance ready to bust them for the slightest infraction. if this is any indication of what it will be like on the run,