The jury decides to strip the logo of a brand of Mongol bikers

Jan. 13, 2019, 00:31 GMT

From Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – A California jury decided Friday that the group of Mongolian bikers should be stripped of its logo Federal Prosecutor

The jury of the court US district of Santa Ana has previously tried the Mongol Nation, entity that holds the image of a Mongol warrior on a helicopter, guilty of racketeering and conspiracy.

An unusual decade-long quest by prosecutors to dismantle the gang responsible for drug trafficking and murder by taking control of the brand, which they said was essential to the company. 39, identity of the gang.

US Deputy Attorney Steve Welk said

Confiscation must still be approved by a federal judge and the actual effect of such an order is not immediately clear. When prosecutors announced the charges in 2008, they stated that a confiscation order would allow any police officer to arrest a gang member and " literally take the jacket off his back, "according to court documents.

what would happen in the future? But defense attorney Joseph Yanny asked if the judge would issue such an order and said the new theory was ill-conceived.

"If you were a law enforcement officer and you knew that there was a gang there and that they had emblems that identifies who they are, why in the name of God would you like you remove them so you can not know who they were? "Yanny said. "It's the most stupid thing."

Yanny, who challenges the convictions, argued at trial that the organization was a club, not a gang, that did not tolerate any criminal activity. He added that the government targeted the group because of its large US-Mexican population and turned the crimes of some into "collective condemnation".

In November, former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor, Jesse Ventura, testified for the defense. The Mongols were a criminal gang. Ventura stated that he had committed no crime and that he had not been ordered to do so when he was Mongolian in the 1970s.

But the jurors concluded that the Mongols were a criminal enterprise responsible for murder, attempted murder and drug trafficking.

US Attorney Christopher M. Brunwin told the jurors that he had killed a Hells Angels leader in San Francisco, during a brawl in Nevada in 2002, which had claimed the lives of two members of the club. and the death of a Pomona policeman who was killed while he was depressing the door of a Mongolian member who was to serve a search warrant in 2014.

Attempt to take the logo followed the condemnation of 77 members of a gang by racketeering in 2008 Officials of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives infiltrated the gang.

Four male ATF officers became full members, and four female officers pretended to be their girlfriends during the lengthy investigation.

One of two things – death or jail, "said a prosecutor, said a member to one of the agents who received a coveted patch.

The Mongols were founded in the suburbs of Los Angeles in 1969. It is estimated that the group has more

The verdict will result in the loss of the legal interest of the gang in the word "Mongols" and some of their patches, as well as Mongol objects seized during of the investigation, said the prosecutors.

A judge could also impose fines at a future hearing on the sentence.