Criminal incidents involving the Bandidos Motorcycle Club in Denmark
The Bandidos Motorcycle Club is classified as a motorcycle gang by law enforcement and intelligence agencies in numerous countries. While the club has denied being a criminal organization, Bandidos members have been convicted of partaking in criminal enterprises including theft, extortion, prostitution, drug trafficking and murder in various host nations.
According to the National Center of Investigation, the Danish Bandidos are involved in a wide range of crimes, including drug dealing, extortion, fraud, tax evasion, robbery, weapons trafficking, money laundering, the sale of stolen goods, and violent crimes. The Bandidos have ten chapters and approximately one-hundred-and-fifty members in Denmark, and have traditionally recruited members of Danish ethnicity, although this has changed somewhat in recent years. The club has links to the Turkish mafia in Denmark.
Nordic Biker War.
The forerunner to the Bandidos in Denmark was the Morticians, a club founded in 1984. The Morticians were initially a support club of the Hells Angels but by 1988, both groups had transformed from motorcycle enthusiasts and small-time criminals into more sophisticated criminal organizations, and disputes between the groups led to a feud. After merging with other clubs rejected by or opposed to the Hells Angels, the Morticians rebranded as the Undertakers, establishing two chapters; "Northland" (based in Stenløse) and "East Coast" (in Hørsholm). In 1992, the Undertakers contacted Bandidos leadership in the United States and France – where the club's only European chapter at that point was based – seeking membership. After serving as prospective members for a short time, the Undertakers were patched over by the Bandidos on 17 December 1993. In August 1995, the Bandidos' "Northland" chapter became the club's head chapter in Europe. Between 1994 and 1997, there were at least 36 break-ins at Danish and Swedish Army installations; at least 16 Bofors anti-tank missiles, 10 machine guns, around 300 handguns, 67 fully automatic rifles, 205 rifles of various calibres, hundreds of hand grenades and land mines, and 17 kilograms of explosives plus detonators were stolen. Police believe the Bandidos or their support clubs were responsible for the majority of the thefts.
A turf war that began in January 1994 between the Morbids Motorcycle Club and the Hells Angels in southern Sweden would later escalate into what would be known as the Nordic Biker War when the Morbids aligned with the Bandidos, sparking a three-year-long gang war between the clubs for control over the drug trade in the Nordic countries. After incidents in Sweden, Finland and Norway, the war reached Denmark on 26 December 1995 when between five and ten Bandidos members attacked and severely beat two Hells Angels at a restaurant in Copenhagen. On 10 March 1996, six Hells Angels ambushed and shot a group of Bandidos at Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen, killing Bandidos "Southside" chapter president Uffe Larsen and wounding another member, a prospect and a hangaround.
Six Hells Angels members and associates were convicted in connection and sentenced to a total of fifty-three years in prison, and one was given a life sentence. On 17 April 1996, the Hells Angels "South" chapter clubhouse in Snoldelev was hit with an anti-tank missile; the fourteen members inside were able to avoid serious injury.
Morten "Træben" ("Wooden Leg") Christiansen, the imprisoned vice president of Bandidos "Southside" chapter, was left in critical condition with shrapnel wounds and burns when assailants broke into Horserød State Prison and threw a hand grenade through his cell window which exploded under his bunk on 26 April 1996. Hells Angels Copenhagen member Brian "Bremse" Paludan Jacobsen lost a leg and two associates were also wounded when two grenades were thrown in front of his home from a moving car in Brønshøj on 7 May 1996. Bandidos member Jim Verner was found dead on 10 July 1996 in Nykøbing Falster. A bomb weighing half a kilo was found underneath his car nearby and defused by an explosive ordnance disposal unit.
On 21 July 1996, a six-kilogram remote-controlled bomb hidden in a sports bag and placed in front of the Hells Angels' clubhouse in Ydre Nørrebro, Copenhagen failed to explode when the radio-controlled trigger malfunctioned, potentially saving the lives of four Hells Angels bikers in the building as well as residents of the street. The device was later detonated by police. The fingerprints of Jacob "Hip Hop" Andersen, a member of the Bandidos chapter in Dalby, were found on the sports bag by police technicians. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in 1997. On 25 July 1996, Jørn "Jønke" Nielsen, a founding member of the Hells Angels' Copenhagen chapter, was subjected to a murder attempt while sleeping in his cell at Jyderup State Prison. Two-to-four men infiltrated the prison and, after failing to gain access to Nielsen's locked cell, fired over twenty rounds from an automatic weapon through the cell window, shooting Nielsen twice in the abdomen and once in the arm. On 5 August 1996, a civilian was shot in a drive-by shooting in Greve; police believe the victim was mistaken for a Hells Angels member living in the same building. An associate of the Bandidos "Southside" chapter was wounded after being shot in his car as he left the clubhouse near Haslev on 14 August 1996. On 4 September 1996, a bomb planted on the car of a Hells Angels member exploded after falling from the vehicle in a parking lot; the bomb detonated three meters away, damaging several cars but causing no injuries. On 12 September 1996, a car bomb exploded outside a Hells Angels clubhouse situated in a residential neighborhood of Roskilde, causing extensive damage but no injuries. The location was attacked again in the early hours of 22 September 1996, with over two-hundred-and-fifty machine gun rounds fired at the building from an adjacent football pitch, wounding one Hells Angels member.
On 6 October 1996, the Hells Angels were holding their annual "Viking Party", attended by around one-hundred-and-fifty people, at their fortified compound in Copenhagen when the building was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade from a Carl Gustaf M3 84 mm recoilless anti-tank rifle, which had been stolen from a Swedish Army depot during a burglary on 19 February 1994. Hells Angels prospect Louis Linde Nielsen and Janne Krohn, a twenty-nine-year-old woman who resided in the neighborhood and accepted an invitation to the event, were killed. Among the fifteen injured was Hells Angels Denmark national president Christian Middelboe. Bandidos prospect Niels Poulsen was convicted of carrying out the attack in March 1998 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Bandidos and Hells Angels were involved in a shootout outside a Copenhagen restaurant on 1 December 1996; no one was injured. Two members of the Bandidos came under gunfire while trapped in a private yard in Valby, Copenhagen on 5 December 1996; one biker was injured.
On 9 December 1996, a member of the Bandidos' Aalborg chapter survived being shot ten times as he waited in his car. Hells Angels member Kim Thrysøe Svendsen was shot and killed while driving in Vejgaard, Aalborg when unknown perpetrators fired three rounds at his car on 10 January 1997. Around 500 Hells Angels bikers from across Europe and the United States attended Svendsen's funeral. Several members of the Bandidos were charged with the killing, but due to lack of evidence, the prosecution had to give up the case, after which the suspects were released. The murder remains unsolved. On 2 February 1997, a prominent Bandidos member remanded in a detention center in Køge survived an attempt on his life when an anti-tank missile fired at his cell failed to explode. Another Bandidos member survived a murder attempt the following day on Amager after being shot while walking to his car. The shooting took place near a kindergarten. The Hells Angels again attempted to kill a jailed rival by firing an anti-tank missile into a police cellblock in Holbæk on 18 February 1997, destroying two cells but leaving a Bandido and another inmate unhurt.
On 1 April 1997, a Hells Angels associate was wounded by a shot from a 9mm pistol, fired at him from another car as he waited at a stop light in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen. Later that day, two men were arrested on suspicion of perpetrating the shooting; one of the men was a Bandidos member. On 1 May 1997, an attempt was made on the life of a Bandidos member being held at Vestre Prison; an electric razor given to him containing ninety-five grams of explosives would have exploded had it been plugged in, but the device was suspected and seized by prison authorities before it was used. Three more attempted murders were carried out against Bandidos members in Denmark that month; one was shot in Køge and another had a Molotov cocktail thrown at his apartment in Copenhagen, while three men associated with the club were shot in Aalborg. On 7 June 1997, four Bandidos members were shot outside a restaurant in Liseleje; Bjørn Gudmandsen was killed and three were wounded. Hells Angels member Vagn Smidt was convicted of the murder and three attempted murders, and sentenced to life in prison on 20 November 1998. The final incident in the biker war took place on 11 June 1997 when a Bandidos clubhouse in Dalby was attacked with a hand grenade. The war formally ended on 25 September 1997 when Bandidos Europe president Jim Tinndahn and his Hells Angels counterpart Bent "Blondie" Svane Nielsen announced that they had signed a peace agreement and shook hands in front of Danish television news cameras. As part of the truce, the clubs agreed to cease expansion in the Nordic countries and to divide territories of criminal activity. Although terms of the agreement have since been broken by both sides, the Bandidos and Hells Angels have largely been able to avoid conflict.
Subsequent conflicts with the Hells Angels.
Claus Bork Hansen, a former senior member of the Bandidos who was expelled from the club and later aligned himself with the Hells Angels, was killed after being shot twenty-six times as he returned home from restaurant with his girlfriend in Vanløse, Copenhagen on 21 March 2001. He had previously been warned by police that he was on the Bandidos' hit list and was offered protection, which he refused. Four Bandidos members were charged with his murder; Jens Christian Thorup was found guilty of killing Hansen on 11 April 2002, while Kent "Kemo" Sørensen, Karl Martin Thorup and Peter Buch Rosenberg were cleared. Thorup was initially sentenced to life in prison but his sentence was reduced to sixteen years on 15 January 2003. Hansen had made a pact with his close friend and fellow Bandidos member Mickey Borgfjord Larsen, where they mutually promised to take revenge in the event of the other's murder. Larsen threatened the lives of several high-ranking Bandidos following Hansen's death and was subsequently killed himself in a car bombing in Glostrup on 17 September 2003. Bandidos members Jacob "Hip Hop" Andersen and Lennart Elkjær Christensen were convicted of murdering Larsen and were sentenced to life in prison on 13 June 2005. Their sentences were reduced to sixteen years on 6 January 2006.
Bandidos associate Flemming Jensen was beaten and stabbed to death by Hells Angels members in a tavern in Aalborg on 12 August 2001. Hells Angels prospect Jesper Østenkær Kristoffersen confessed to stabbing Jensen eight times and was sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter on 7 February 2002, while Jørn "Jønke" Nielsen was sentenced to four years on 18 September 2002 for aggravated assault resulting in death as witnesses claimed that he had kicked and stomped on Jensen.
Renewed tensions between the Bandidos and Hells Angels resulted in an outbreak of violence in September 2012. After two stabbings and an attempted hit-and-run, a seventeen-ton unmanned truck with a brick on the accelerator ploughed into a property used by the Bandidos on Amager on 18 September 2012. Police suspect the incident was carried out by the Hells Angels support group AK81. The following day, a hundred bikers – including Bandidos Europe president Michael "The Chef" Rosenvold – were arrested as police raided eighteen locations across Zealand in an attempt to assert control ahead of a what they believed to be an imminent gang war. Guns, knives, axes, drugs and anabolic steroids were also seized in the raids.
Drug trafficking.
On 15 November 2002, Bandidos prospect Stig Bartholdy was sentenced to fourteen