The police arrive at dawn. Hundreds of officers comb through objects that are attributed to the Bandidos. With the rockers you can find weapons, drugs, money and ammunition.
Düsseldorf – With raids in five federal states, the police are targeting the rock group “Bandidos MC Federation West Central”.
As the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced, almost 1,800 officials from the Federal Criminal Police Office, the Federal Police and the police authorities of the federal states were involved in the investigative measures under association law in Thuringia, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate on Thursday.
“There is an urgent suspicion that the purpose and activities of the association run counter to criminal laws,” said the home of Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), justifying the searches.
1300 police forces in action in North Rhine-Westphalia
In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, 1,300 police officers searched more than 86 club houses and apartments since the early hours of the morning. In Lower Saxony, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia, 18 other objects were the target of the measures, as announced by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. According to the information, the police seized weapons, ammunition and large amounts of cash. According to the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul (CDU), drugs and motorcycles were also seized.
Reul said in Düsseldorf: “We suspect that the rocker members violate the law and commit serious crimes”. The rule of law has the monopoly of force, not just any rocker clubs, he stressed.
Local chapters banned in April
Last April, the police in the Ruhr area enforced the ban on a local association of the notorious rocker group. “These members are responsible for attempted murder, dangerous physical harm and violations of the gun law. There were shootings in the street, ”Reul said at the time.
The Bandidos chapter “Witten / Hohenlimburg” and the associated sub-organization “Los Compadres Hagen” have been banned and dissolved “because it is a criminal organization”. A lawsuit was later filed with the Higher Administrative Court for North Rhine-Westphalia against the ban.
In March, the rocker association “Gremium MC Southgate” was banned in Baden-Württemberg. “The federal and state governments are using all means available to the rule of law to combat any form of crime,” said Seehofer. In 2018 he banned the rocker-like Turkish nationalist association “Ottoman Germania”.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the “Bandidos MC” was founded in Texas, USA in 1966 and has been represented in Germany since 1999. Instead of just promoting motorcycling together, as the association’s purpose provides, the association actually strives to “increase territorial and financial power over competing rocker-like groups”. The Bandidos also enforced this claim by force. dpa