A Decade-long boom in motorcycle gang recruitment and a northern push by gangs like the Mongols, primarily based in Southern California, into territories once traditionally held by their rivals.The San Jose chapter of the Hells Angels, established in the 1960s, Schlim said, has reluctantly had to share its turf in the past 10 years with the Mongols."Like all of the other gangs, all of them, they have all spread dramatically in the last 10 years," he said.For the Hells Angels, said Timothy McKinley, a retired FBI agent who specialized in outlaw motorcycle gangs, this general expansion by rival clubs has meant war not just with the Mongols, but with other groups, even in places like Britain and Scandinavia, far from the dust and grit of the Central and San Fernando valleys.Some of the clubs, both Schlim and Gleysteen said, have turned to recruiting members of street gangs, Surenos and Nortenos and others, to serve as soldiers in these ongoing wars. Schlim said that's been especially true of the Hells Angels and Mongols."Both have resorted to recruiting street gang members — some of them who don't even own a motorcycle," Schlim said with a chuckle. "They need cannon fodder. If you can hire three guns and I can hire three guns, let them fight it out."But as much as turf wars might be motivating these gangs' clashes, Schlim said, it's the personal vendettas, the bad blood over fallen brothers and that now-ancient battle over the patch that provide the most potent fuel for bloodshed."All those guys involved in those original shootings are still members,'' he said. "These guys are 24/7, 365 days — for life. They know they're at war.''
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