VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Multiple Mongols motorcycle club members are now in custody in Volusia County and across the state after a major operation with the FBI.
The sheriff’s officer says the group is responsible for a shootout between rival motorcycle clubs at a busy gas station in New Smyrna Beach during Bike Week.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office raided the Mongols’ clubhouse and several members’ homes early Wednesday.
Thirty-one warrants were executed for aggravated riot. Twenty-eight are in custody so far.
This includes the club’s president, who surrendered at his home in Edgewater. SWAT recovered multiple weapons from his home.
SWAT also raided the Mongols’ clubhouse in Edgewater.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said said some club members are in the country illegally, while others may be involved in other crimes.
The sheriff said all evidence is being turned over to the FBI as part of a larger investigation into the club.
The group is facing felony aggravated riot charges. Others are facing additional firearms charges.
Volusia County deputies said members are responsible for the Bike Week shootout between the Warlocks and Mongols on State Road 44 at the Racetrack gas station.
The riot charges were issued after state law changed shortly after civil unrest in 2020 to prevent riots from happening in Florida. The new law defines aggravated rioting as participating in a riot with 25 or more people, causing great bodily harm to a person not participating in the riot, causing property damage exceeding $5,000, displaying a deadly weapon, or endangering vehicle traffic on a public street. It is a second-degree felony and punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office believes this is the first instance in which the rioting law has been used to file charges.
Chitwood said the investigation included 10 other sheriff’s offices from across the state, nine police departments and hundreds of FBI agents.
During the operation, 38 handguns and 15 long guns were recovered.
The chapter president of the Mongols club in Volusia County, Carlos Cardona Batista, was arrested at his home in Port Orange. Chitwood said he is in the country illegally and asked the attorney general if he could be sent to the Everglades’ new detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Chitwood said one of the members was arrested in Virginia, but a special magistrate judge there let him walk. There is now a Florida governor’s warrant out for that person’s arrest.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2025 Cox Media Group
