Team Leader at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites Belongs to Anti-“Jihad” Motorcycle Club, Has Crusader Tattoos

A lead contractor for a company providing security at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s controversial food distribution sites is a member of a Crusader-inspired motorcycle club that touts its opposition to the “radical jihadist movement.”

Johnny “Taz” Mulford belongs to a Florida chapter of the Infidels, a biker group for veterans of U.S. wars and private military contractors like Blackwater. In May, Mulford began recruiting among his Facebook network for an unspecified job opportunity, asking anyone who “can still shoot, move and communicate” to contact him.

Reached by phone on Friday, Mulford confirmed to The Intercept that he is currently in Israel, adding that he was “on his way to a checkpoint,” but declined to comment further. Two sources directly familiar with the Gaza operations of UG Solutions, including former contractor Anthony Aguilar, confirmed Mulford’s employment to The Intercept. Mulford’s ties to the motorcycle group were first reported by Zeteo.

UG Solutions is a contractor providing security at aid distribution sites run by GHF, the aid effort in Gaza backed by the Trump administration and Israel.

“They’re in a primary Arab Muslim population, delivering food at the end of the gun.”

Mulford’s membership in the Infidels and numerous tattoos widely linked to the Crusades and contemporary far-right movements raise questions about his role as a contractor for the GHF mission. Among other posts on Facebook, Mulford nods to Christian Zionism by sharing a post calling Israel “God’s chosen nation” and a video mocking pro-Palestine protesters.

“If I went into Israel with a Nazi swastika on my arm and said ‘Heil Hitler,’ what would people think of me?” said Aguilar, a former Green Beret and UG Solutions contractor who has become a public critic of the GHF, raising concerns about Mulford’s tattoos and Infidels affiliation in the Middle East. “They’re in a primary Arab Muslim population, delivering food at the end of the gun.”

Mulford and the GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Infidels national umbrella and a local Florida chapter did not respond to requests made, respectively, to an online form and a chapter official.

“Johnny Mulford is a respected contractor in the industry, with over 30 years of cleared service supporting U.S. government and allied efforts. Any allegations suggesting otherwise are categorically false and defamatory,” Drew O’Brien, a UG Solutions spokesperson, said in a statement. “We do not screen for personal hobbies or affiliations unrelated to job performance or security standards. Every team member undergoes comprehensive background checks, and only qualified, vetted individuals are deployed on UG Solutions operations.”

O’Brien declined to comment on Mulford’s tattoos.

The Infidels were founded in 2006 by an American mercenary in Iraq nicknamed “Slingshot,” according to the club’s website, which says the early members were security contractors and military veterans. According to its website, “Infidels Motorcycle Club is a veteran formed and based MC for Patriotic Americans and our supporting allies.”

“Bearing in mind that we support the war against terrorism, and many of our Club members have and are serving in Iraq and other locations worldwide as either members of the military or as civilian contractors, our political views may not be shared by everyone,” says the national umbrella group in a Facebook post. “We neither support nor tolerate the Jihadist movement and those who support it. If on the other hand you do support the country’s efforts against Islamic extremism, then support your local Infidels MC!”

In 2015, the Infidels’ Colorado Springs chapter threw a pig roast barbecue party “in defiance of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan,” according to an event flyer that also “included comparisons of Muslim men to pedophiles,” a local outlet reported at the time.

Mulford, who registered the local chapter in Florida, is an active member of the Infidels, according to his and others’ social media postings. He is frequently shown in photos online posing with fellow club members at meet-ups. The Infidels wear matching leather vests bearing the club name and a red cross on the back. In one photo, Mulford’s vest has an embroidered patch on the front that says “Original Infidel.”

Crusader Iconography

The Infidels — including Mulford — frequently employ Crusader iconography in their tattoos and apparel.

Photos of Mulford show him tattooed with crosses affiliated with the Crusades and, more recently, right-wing Christian movements.

A photo of Mulford on Facebook shows him without a shirt after an apparent outing to fish. On his right forearm is an American flag rendered in flames and overlain by a so-called Templar symbol: a shield emblazoned with a red cross, styled after the Christian military order of the Knights Templar. His left bicep displays another Templar shield. A tattoo on his right forearm displays the Jerusalem or Crusader cross, a squared-off cross with smaller crosses in each of the corners.

In another photo, Mulford can be seen wearing a vest that includes both the Infidels name and an amalgamation of several Crusader-style crosses.

According to Matthew Gabriele, a medieval studies professor at Virginia Tech and an expert in Crusader iconography, the Jerusalem cross and Templar shield are frequently embraced by white supremacists and the far right, — a nod to an imagined “existential conflict between Islam and Christianity” in the Middle Age, Gabriele said. Crusader iconography of this kind doesn’t reflect the historical record, but rather a sort of Christian revenge fantasy.

“It doesn’t have a whole lot of specific attachment the Middle Ages themselves, but a nostalgic version in which this existential conflict between Islam and Christianity, that has gone back to Islam’s founding, has always put Christianity on the defensive,” Gabriele said. Crosses and shields “symbolize that during the Crusades, Christianity struck back in a positive way. It really is a particular stance toward Islam and the Middle East.”

The Crusader aesthetic and the proud self-labeling of oneself as an “infidel” grew in popularity during the war on terror and have remained as gestures of anti-Muslim sentiment on the right.

“It was a way for a particular kind of American soldier,” Gabriele said, “to kind of reflect back Al Qaeda’s rhetoric: ‘Yeah we are the crusaders, we’re going to come there and kick your ass.’”

Crusader symbols have attracted scrutiny when worn by figures like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was questioned about his Jerusalem cross tattoo during Senate confirmation hearings. Hegseth defended the cross as a symbol of Christianity.

In July, while the GHF’s food distributions were ongoing, Mulford posted an illustration on Facebook of a kneeling Crusader knight with a glowing cross in the background and a superimposed biblical quote.

Other Facebook photos shared by Mulford show him with Crusader-style crosses on his arms and the number 1095 across his chest — the year Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade.

The date of 1095 has been cited as symbolically important by violent right-wing actors, Gabriele said, from Norwegian mass shooter Anders Breivik to Brenton Tarrant, perpetrator of the anti-Muslim massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The date 1095, Gabriele said, represents a worldview in which Muslims are “a threat to be killed” and driven from the Holy Land.

In 2018, the national Infidels umbrella group shared a photo montage from what it describes as a “Crusader ride” organized by its members.

Security Contractor

Mulford served in the Marine Corps from 1982 to 1985 before a stint in the Army from 1987 to 2007, when he saw multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an Army spokesperson. Subsequently, according to a personal website, he served overseas as a “security agent” for a “government agency.”

His service records include numerous commendations and achievements. A report stated that Mulford was “debarred” following “nonjudicial punishment” under military disciplinary rules related to an alleged scheme where “Mulford received a kickback from a contractor who provided skydiving training to Fort Bragg Soldiers.” Mulford’s debarment, a designation the military uses in deciding to award contracts, was terminated in 2007, shortly before his retirement from the Army at the rank of master sergeant.

The company employing Mulford is one of at least three U.S. contractors for the GHF, the nonprofit distributing food in Gaza with Israel’s approval.

To distribute what it says are over 108 million meals so far, the foundation has hired a pair of U.S. companies — one helmed by a former CIA official, the other by a Green Beret veteran — to provide logistics and armed private security contractors. Other aid organizations say the idea of staffing aid distribution sites with armed contractors violates basic principles of neutrality and have refused to work with the GHF.

One of UG Solutions’ partner organizations has already drawn scrutiny for its leader’s views on Islam and Palestinians.

In July, independent journalist Jack Poulson reported that Matthew Murphy, the president of a small relief organization called the Sentinel Foundation that partnered with UG Solutions to distribute aid in Gaza earlier this year, had a record of making bigoted remarks against Muslims generally and Palestinians in particular. In a podcast interview last year, Murphy referred to Palestine as “a little shithole.”

“Killing and beheading and raping and treating, you know, Christian and Jewish women as lesser-than and slaves is not just something terrorists think, it’s Islam,” Murphy said.

The Sentinel Foundation was co-founded by former Green Beret Jameson Govoni, who went on to found UG Solutions.

The GHF and its partners have drawn worldwide scrutiny since they began aid distributions in May.

At least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed seeking food since the foundation began its work in Gaza, including 859 people near distribution sites and 514 along food convoy routes, according to the United Nations. Palestinians say that many have died under gunfire from the Israeli military.

In job listings, UG Solutions describes itself as “a fast-moving, mission-driven private security company with global reach.” The Charlotte-based company first got involved in the conflict earlier this year when its private soldiers were tasked with manning checkpoints during a ceasefire.

The company has sought out former U.S. Special Forces veterans, according to job listings.

Four Democratic members of Congress last week wrote to UG Solutions and another GHF contractor, warning them that the companies’ employees could be held liable if war crimes have been committed. Working closely with the Israeli military, those members warned, has exposed the company’s staffers to great legal risk.

UG Solutions has denied mistreating Palestinians in Gaza, while acknowledging that its contractors have used pepper spray and “warning shots” to disperse crowds.

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