Ex-ATF agent denies Mongol was an informant

A former ATF agent denied during courtroom testimony Friday that a now-deposed leader of the notorious Mongols Motorcycle Club served as a secret source of information for the government during a lengthy legal battle over whether the outlaw group should be deemed a criminal organization.

Club attorneys are seeking a new trial, alleging that former Mongols President David Santillan was secretly a government “rat” who served as a confidential informant for a then-agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives during a 2019 criminal trial against the motorcycle club that played out at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana.

The now-retired ATF agent, John Ciccone, testified Friday that his contacts with Santillan occurred during public club events where other Mongols members were present and denied ever pulling strings to help Santillan avoid legal trouble.

“We would have a simple conversation: Keep your people in check and we won’t bother you,” Ciccone said of his public talks with Santillan and other club members at large events.

An ATF supervisor also testified Friday that Santillan is not listed in the federal agencies database of informants.

The club accusations against Santillan stemmed from a surreptitiously recorded phone call of an apparently inebriated Santillan speaking to his at-thetime-estranged wife. During that recorded conversation, Santillan responded to his wife saying she didn’t want to be part of the motorcycle club world anymore by saying “John told me al

ready I have one year, one year, he’s retiring after one year and he can’t protect me anymore, he told me, so we have to have an exit strategy.”

Santillan’s wife later sent the recording to other Mongol members in a text message in which she also referred to Santillan as a “rat.” Santillan since has reconciled with his wife, and in her own recent testimony his wife backed away from allegations that Santillan was a government informant.

Joseph Yanny, the club’s attorney, alleges that Santillan met surreptitiously with Ciccone during the club’s 2019 federal trial. Yanny has argued that Santillan refused to allow him to call Ciccone as a defense witness, a decision the attorney warned likely made their trial unwinnable.

Yanny, during his questioning of Ciccone, noted that unlike his immediate predecessors, Santillan never faced a federal indictment for his role with the club.

“So, Dave took over, the club continued to do similar things?” Yanny asked.

“I’m sure there were crimes committed,” Ciccone responded.

“But there have been no indictments against Dave?” Yanny said.

“No,” Ciccone answered. Santillan previously testified that his comments during the recorded phone call were referencing a conversation he had with Ciccone at an ATF building when he was picking up club property after the trial. Ciccone said he was retiring and urged Santillan to consider leaving his position with the club as well, since his replacement at the ATF may not be as “nice” with the club, Santillan testified.

Much of the testimony Friday centered on Santillan’s potential connection to law enforcement investigations into the powerful, prison-based Mexican Mafia.

According to court filings, an attorney with ties to the Mexican Mafia was trying to reach the president of the Mongols in 2014 as part of an alleged effort to extort the motorcycle club. Santillan was president of the Mongols at the time, but it wasn’t clear from the court records whether such a meeting with the attorney with alleged Mexican Mafia connections ever occurred, or whether the alleged extortion plot actually moved forward.

Judge David Carter, who is presiding over the hearings, told the attorneys that he wants to see evidence of whether or not Santillan received leniency following several arrests, including an alleged DUI crash and a fight with a security guard. Santillan has denied that Ciccone helped him avoid legal jeopardy.

Formed in Montebello in the 1970s and now based in West Covina, the Mongols were infiltrated by several undercover law enforcement agents during a multiagency investigation known as Operation Black Rain. In 2019, a jury determined that the Mongols are a criminal organization that took part in drug trafficking and carried out assaults and even murder, with much of the violence occurring during the club’s long-running rivalry with the Hells Angels motorcycle club.

Testimony related to the motion for a new trial is scheduled to continue next week.