Mark “Bruni” Brown says he is turning his back on the biker world after he was hacked at by masked assailants following a string of attacks.
A biker gang boss has quit after he was ambushed by machete thugs in a bloodbath on the M74.
Mark “Bruni” Brown – president of the Mad Dogs Motorcycle Club– was riding with fellow bikers when they were set upon by 12 thugs armed with bats and swords on the motorway, near Lesmahagow on Sunday.
After undergoing reconstructive surgery on his hands in hospital this week, he told the Record he has quit the biker gang over fears his family will be caught up in the violence.
The 63-year-old said: “I was driving on the motorway when I noticed one of our bikers had broken down.
“We stopped to help and the next thing I knew, masked men were hacking at me with machetes.
“My wife is terrified – I can’t go on living like this.
“I have left the Mad Dogs now and need to think about my family.
“Enough is enough. I won’t be back on the road with any motorbike club and just want to put this all behind me.”
Bruni revealed he has been targeted several times after he left rival biker gang the Blue Angels Motorcycle Club three years ago.
He continued: “I don’t know if it was Blue Angels who attacked me.
“Ever since I left Blue Angels my home has been petrol bombed, my car was torched, and now this.
“I’ve been in hiding due to threats on my life. We had to leave our home a year ago.”
Bruni and other Mad Dogs members were returning to Scotland from a weekend partying in England when they were set upon.
Armed thugs had been travelling in four vehicles and left the cars to attack the bikers who are regularly seen wearing leathers emblazoned with 1% logos, in reference to outlaw motorcycle gangs.
A red Mazda car used in the attack was later recovered in Ayrshire.
Earlier this week a social media post on a Mad Dogs Motorcycle Club page issued a defiant message and said they would not be forced off the road.
The now deleted post read: “A bit of background to what has been going on with the dogs. This is NOT rumours or bulls***, just straight facts.
“To set it straight YES we were attacked on the M74 motorway by 12 masked and heavily armed cowardly cardboard gangster puppets with swords, bats and anything they could grab as a weapon.
“Here’s their version, ‘We are all in hospital and some of us are dead. Clearly not, you incompetent cowards. You know what, we’re still standing and always will be!
“We have the same rights to drive on the roads as anyone else, doing what we want to do, but some people just can’t handle the fact we’re still here and growing stronger.”
The post was accompanied with pictures of Bruni but he told the Record it was nothing to do with him.
He was released from hospital on Thursday morning and claims injuries to his hands left him unable to pick up a phone.
He added: “This Facebook post was written as if it were speaking on my behalf but nothing could be further from the truth.
“Whoever put the message out there is just putting a target on my back.
“I was furious when my wife told me about it.
“Most of the injuries I suffered were defence wounds on my hands and I had two operations over the past week.
“I’m not able to hold a phone never mind post on ‘defiant’ messages on social media.
“I am waiting to find out if the surgery was successful, but if not I am facing amputation.”
Police are probing the M74 attack and asked motorists with dashcam footage to come forward.
Detective Sergeant Craig Wait said: “We believe this was a targeted attack on the group of motorcyclists and it’s vital we trace the people responsible.
“One man has been seriously injured as a result of the attack and many others, including members of the public who witnessed what happened, have been left shaken.
“I’m appealing to anyone with information to come forward.”
The attack comes weeks after Mad Dogs members were struck by a car outside a pub in Renfrewshire. Bikers were mowed down outside Lorimers boozer in Bishopton, after they had left a meeting on July 11.
Police said they were treating the incident as attempted murder.
The Mad Dogs MC gang broke away from Blue Angels – Scotland’s oldest motorbike outlaw gang – in 2023 and the two tribes have remained at war.
Mad Dogs founder and former president Dan Laponder is serving a nine-year jail term for blowing up a van linked to a Blue Angels rival. Laponder had been a leader of the Blue Angels but left and formed the Mad Dogs.
In June 2024 the van used by Blue Angels member David Rollo’s dad was blown up near his home in Lennoxtown, Dunbartonshire. Fire crews found the pipe bomb lying underneath.
Police traced Laponder to a barge where he was living in Kirkintilloch and he told them about a shotgun he had inside. Laponder’s DNA and fingerprints were recovered from a bottle and duct tape used in the making of the pipe bomb.
Bruni then took over as President of the club but they have been repeatedly attacked over the past two years by the Blue Angels.
Last August violence erupted at the funeral of crash victim Gordon Luke, 71, at The Hurlet Crematorium in Barrhead, Renfrewshire.
Several men wielding machetes were said to have jumped from vehicles and attacked Mad Dogs members, leading to a 65-year-old grandad and men aged 44 and 30 being hospitalised.
In April of this year a fire on Edison Street in Hillington was linked to the feud but no injuries were reported.
Get more Daily Record exclusives by signing up for free to Google’s preferred sources. Click HERE.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login