A powerful blow to Hells Angels: in Europe there were mass searches and arrests

German law enforcement agencies together with colleagues from other European countries conducted the largest special operation against the biker group Hells Angels. According to Bild, the main goal of the security forces was the destruction of the pan-European network for money laundering.

Large-scale raids covered several German lands - Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Berlin, as well as Belgium, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. More than a thousand police and prosecutors took part in the operation. The investigation was coordinated by Duisburg and the North Rhine-Westphalia Financial Crimes Authority.

The investigation established the involvement of 71 defendants in the activities of the criminal community. Bikers are charged with creating an organized group, extortion, robbery, fraud and tax evasion. Cases involving illegal arms trafficking and bodily harm are also being considered.

According to the investigation, the members of the group organized a complex scheme for the legalization of funds received from drug and weapons trafficking, racketeering and activities in the sex industry. In the course of searches in more than 100 places, arrests were made on property worth about 48.6 million euros. 14 arrest warrants have been issued for suspects.

North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Royle described the operation as the most powerful blow to organised crime in years. The confiscation of assets deprives criminal structures of their main driving force.

The investigation lasts more than four years. The reason for the start of large-scale work was a shootout in May 2022 at Altmarkt Square in the center of Duisburg. Hells Angels members and representatives of the Turkish-Lebanese clans joined the armed clash, as a result of which four people were seriously injured.