Prosecutors are attempting to break up one of America’s most violent motorcycle gangs - Mongols Nation - by claiming rights to their logo

Prosecutors are attempting to break up America’s most violent motorcycle gangs by claiming rights to their logos.

If the government is successful, it will become illegal for a member of the 600-strong notorious Mongols Nation gang to wear its trademarked patch – a black-and-white image of 12th century conqueror Genghis Khan riding a motorbike in a pair of sunglasses.

Police sources say that removing gang logos diminishes the gang’s power and identity.

A source told Fox News: ‘It not just stripping them of their identity, or robbing them of a recruiting tool, it's taking the star off their helmet. The logo itself furthers a criminal enterprise.’

If successful, one expert says that the government will use the legal precedent to disrupt other violent motorcycle groups, including those involved in Sunday’s horrific shoot-out in Waco.

Donald Charles Davis, author of 'Aging Rebel: Dispatches From The Motorcycle Outlaw Frontier', told Fox that the other clubs see this as ‘just a first step to what the government wants to do to all motorcycle clubs. They want to outlaw motorcycle clubs by taking their insignia away from them’.

The Mongols Nation badge was registered as a trademark in 2005, but prohibited in 2008 after the ATF arrested over 100 members of the gang on a variety of serious charges, including murder and robbery. However, the ban was later lifted.

The case between the gang and the government will be argued out in an LA court on June 2.



Experts have revealed that confrontation between the Cossacks and the Bandidos - the two main gangs involved in Sunday's shooting in Waco - had been simmering for months when one biker's foot was apparently run over by a rival in a restaurant parking lot.

If successful, one expert says that the government will use the legal precedent to disrupt other violent motorcycle groups, including those involved in Sunday’s horrific shoot-out in Waco, by making their badge's illegal, too

The case between the Mongols Nation and the government will be argued out in a Los Angeles court on June 2. Pictured is the logo for the Pagan's gang, which is active on America's east coast

The Hells Angels is probably one of the most notorious biker gangs in the world

A source said that taking away badges is 'not just stripping them [gangs] of their identity, or robbing them of a recruiting tool, it's taking the star off their helmet. The logo itself furthers a criminal enterprise'

Police said the injury to the biker's foot is thought to have sparked the shootout when the rivals faced off at a gathering at a so-called 'breastauraunt'.

And Edward Winterhalder, a former member of the Bandidos who has written 10 books about biker gangs, told Daily Mail Online that the feud began when the Cossacks angered their rivals by putting a Texas patch on a territory-claiming part of their vests known as the 'bottom rocker' a year ago.

'The Cossacks decided they were big enough and strong enough,' he said. 'The Bandidos told them to take it off but they didn't back down.'

The Bandidos, who formed in Texas in 1966, have long dominated the territory over the Cossacks, who formed there three years after their rivals.

There are now around 200 Cossacks in the area and 150 Bandidos, but the Bandidos have many more support biker groups than their rivals, he said.

Edward Winterhalder, a former member of the Bandidos who has written 10 books about biker gangs, told Daily Mail Online that the feud began when the Cossacks angered their rivals by putting a Texas patch on a territory-claiming part of their vests known as the 'bottom rocker' a year ago

Police have recovered over 300 weapons from the Waco crime scene so far

Meanwhile, the police count of the number of weapons recovered from the scene of the deadly Waco shootout continues to fluctuate.

Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton now says crime scene officers have made a new weapons count and come up with 318 'and still counting.' Swanton said he expected the count to continue to rise.

Of those weapons counted so far, 118 are handguns, one is an AK-47 assault-style rifle and 157 are knives. Swanton says weapons still uncounted are clubs, knives, brass knuckles, firearms and chains with padlocks attached.

Earlier, Swanton had lowered an estimate of recovered weapons from about 1,000 to about 500. The uncertainty over the count prompted Swanton to ask the police crime scene supervisor to give him a firmer count.

The scale of the incident is likely to overwhelm McLennan County District Attorney Abelino Reyna and his team of about a dozen felony prosecutors, predict legal experts.

'It's pretty much uncharted territory for anybody,' defense lawyer Walter Reaves Jr., told USA Today. 'It's going to put a strain on the entire court system.'

Engaging in organized crime can bring a sentence of five years to life in prison, but some of those charges could be upgraded to murder, a capital offense. Texas has the death penalty.