Reputed Mongols biker gang member charged with murder in shooting of Vagos rival
By Matthew Ormseth Staff Writer os Angels Times April 15, 2025
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-04-15/mongols-vagos-biker-gang-murder-charge
A reputed member of the Mongols motorcycle club was charged Tuesday with murdering a member of the rival Vagos in what federal prosecutors say is an escalating conflict between the two outfits.
Julian Pulido, 35, shot to death Vicente Sandoval on March 4 at the Firewater Bar in Ontario, according to a complaint unsealed Tuesday and San Bernardino County coroner’s records. A second alleged Mongols member, Clifford Lavoy, is accused of choking Sandoval before he was killed.
Lavoy pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of assault in aid of racketeering and is being jailed without bond, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney‘s office in Los Angeles. Pulido remained Tuesday in a San Bernardino County jail and has yet to enter a plea in federal court.
Sandoval’s killing was the latest flareup in a three-year conflict between the Mongols and the Vagos that, according to court records, included a shooting at a Hooters restaurant, a brawl at a Harley-Davidson store in Marina del Rey and a homicide allegedly committed by a paraplegic Vago who rode a three-wheeled motorcycle.
In the complaint, a California Highway Patrol officer said the Mongols count 2,500 members around the world, with chapters in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Europe and Asia. The club is governed by a “Mother Chapter” that collects dues from regional affiliates. The officer, whose name was redacted in the complaint, said the money was derived in part from robberies, credit card fraud and sales of methamphetamine and cocaine.
In 2022, the Mongols’ dirty laundry was aired in federal court when the club’s longtime lawyer accused its president, David “Little Dave” Santillan, of being a secret informant for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which spearheaded two racketeering cases against the club.
Santillan denied the charge, despite being secretly recorded by his wife saying that an ATF agent could no longer “protect” him once he retired. Santillan, a 25-year member of the Mongols, testified in 2022 that he was “in limbo” with the club, stripped of his title as president.
The officer wrote in the complaint that Mongols leaders maintain an “arsenal” of assault rifles, handguns, shotguns, knives and bulletproof vests in their downtown Los Angeles headquarters. The Mongols allegedly kept the cache of weapons to use against rivals, including the Hells Angels, Outlaws, Sons of Silence and Vagos.
Prosecutors trace the Mongols’ conflict with the Vagos to Dec. 19, 2021, when the latter club held a memorial for a dead member at a Hooters in Riverside. Some Mongols showed up and a fight broke out, the officer wrote. Shooting erupted from both sides. By the time Riverside police arrived, everyone had fled — but blood on the ground indicated someone had been wounded, the complaint says.
After the Hooters shooting, the “upper levels” of both motorcycle clubs tried to “broker” a meeting, but one never materialized, the officer wrote.
The night of May 8, 2024, the Asylum Motorcycle Club held a party at the Escondite bar in downtown Los Angeles, according to a search warrant affidavit reviewed by The Times. The Asylum Motorcycle Club is a “support club” for the Mongols, meaning its members are allowed to tag along to Mongols events, the complaint says.
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of its founding, Asylum Motorcycle Club members decked out the Escondite with a mechanical bull and DJ equipment, a Los Angeles Police Department detective wrote in the affidavit.
At 11:24 p.m., a fight broke out between some Mongols and two members of the Vagos who crashed the party. One of the Vagos, later identified as Joseph Laumua, was in a wheelchair.
After the fight ended, Laumua and the second Vago met with someone who arrived in a silver SUV, according to the affidavit. Laumua and the other Vago returned to the party with guns and opened fire, the detective wrote.
They missed the Mongols, hitting instead two bystanders who weren’t affiliated with motorcycle gangs, the complaint said. Jose Lira, 47, was killed. The second victim survived.
Laumua fled on a three-wheeled Harley-Davidson, the detective wrote. Arrested three months later, the 38-year-old La Mirada resident pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering Lira. The second shooter hasn’t been identified.
Two months after Lira was killed, some Vagos and Mongols got into a fight at a Harley-Davidson store in Marina del Rey, which ended in the Vagos firing shots, according to the complaint. Regional officers of both clubs warned members to “be prepared for further violence,” the complaint says.
The night that Sandoval was killed in Ontario, Pulido showed up at the Firewater Bar wearing a black hat that read “Mongols M.C.” and a black sweatshirt with the letters “MFFM,” which stands for “Mongols Forever, Forever Mongols,” the officer wrote in the complaint.
Firewater didn’t allow patrons to wear their “cuts” — leather vests with patches indicating membership in an outlaw motorcycle group. Sandoval showed up wearing a sweatshirt that said, “Vagos MC SGV,” and a Vagos pendant on a gold chain.
Pulido and Lavoy told Sandoval he’d failed to show them proper respect when he didn’t introduce himself at the bar, the officer wrote. Sandoval accused the men of acting like a “little b—” but bought them a round of drinks as an apology, according to the complaint.
Pulido asked the bartender to put a second round of drinks on Sandoval’s tab. The bartender refused.
Pulido then punched Sandoval in the face, smearing with blood the ring on his finger engraved with the letters “LMDM,” or “Live Mongol, Die Mongol,” the officer wrote. Lavoy started choking Sandoval, the complaint says.
Sandoval broke free and ran for the door. Pulido drew a gun and shot Sandoval four times in the back, according to the complaint.
Pulido and Lavoy ran past Sandoval’s body, which lay on the sidewalk outside the bar. According to the complaint, Pulido briefly returned to the body, yelling, “F—! F—!” before running away.
After tailing him for hours, Ontario police tried to arrest Pulido later that day in Kern County. Pulido pulled his Dodge Dart off the 5 Freeway and blew through a red light, nearly hitting two cars, the officer wrote. He tried to make a U-turn going 60 mph and crashed into a ditch.