Gang investigators in West Texas have made several arrests connected with a violent biker gang conflict between the Mongols and Bandidos in Midland, including a roadway shooting that wounded a Mongols member from El Paso.
A reputed member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, identified as Gilbert Roman Corrales, 43, of Odessa, was arrested on Saturday, May 2, accused of shooting a Mongols biker a week earlier, the Midland Police Department and the Texas Anti-Gang Center Permian Basin said in news releases on Monday, May 4.
Law enforcement officers with the Texas Anti-Gang Center, known as TAG, and Odessa police arrested Corrales in Odessa on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was booked into the Ector County Detention Center.
Texas biker conflict between Bandidos and Mongols
The bloodshed publicly erupted on the Saturday morning of April 25 when a 58-year-old El Paso biker with the Mongols Motorcycle Club was shot multiple times while riding a motorcycle on West Loop 250 in Midland, police said.
The El Paso man’s name was not disclosed. He was last reported to be hospitalized in stable condition following surgery on April 25.
Hours later, on the afternoon of April 25, five Mongols allegedly attacked a motorist, who is a member of the Bandidos, who was beaten and stabbed along Interstate 20 in Midland in what appeared to be a retaliatory attack, reported News West 9 KWES-TV in Midland-Odessa.
An investigation involving TAG Permian Basin and Midland police resulted in the arrests of five reputed Mongols members — Willie Morales, 45, Jose Lujan 41, Billy Blackmon, 50, Jose Vasquez, 33, and Christopher Smith, 48.
The men were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and engaging in organized criminal activity, TAG Permian Basin reported.
TAG Center Permian Basin is comprised of law enforcement officers from the Midland and Ector county sheriff’s offices, Midland police, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Midland County District Attorney’s Office, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Texas Anti-Gang Centers are collaborative law enforcement hubs dedicated to combating gang-related crime. There are TAG centers in El Paso, Lubbock, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley, Tyler and Waco.
The Bandidos and Mongols are both international “1 percenter” motorcycle clubs, or what law enforcement term outlaw motorcycle gangs.
The Bandidos have a generations-long presence in Texas having been founded in 1966 in Houston. The Mongols originated in 1969 in Southern California.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com and @BorundaDaniel on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Texas biker gang conflict between Bandidos, Mongols leads to arrests
Reporting by Daniel Borunda, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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