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CRIME

Bavaria says criminal biker gang getting stronger

The Bavarian Interior Ministry has warned that the motorcycle group, Hells Angels, linked to organized crime in some countries, is gaining a strong foothold in southern Germany.

Bavaria says criminal biker gang getting stronger
Photo:DPA

Bavaria’s Deputy Interior Minister Jürgen Heike told newspaper Welt am Sonntag that authorities in the southern German state had registered the growing presence of the biker gang. “There are initial indications, and there have been incidents, showing that the Hells Angels are establishing themselves in Bavaria,” Heike said. “We are monitoring the rise of organizational structures like those in the Mafia,” he said in an interview to be published in full on Sunday.

Hells Angels, written off as a bunch of wild-living bikers by some, have been linked in many countries to dealing in illegal drugs and arms, to prostitution, people smuggling and money laundering.

Heike said southern Germany was of increasing interest to the gang because of drug routes running through south-eastern Europe and the Balkans. “The Hells Angels are organized on an international basis and target areas where they can make money,” he said.

Police in Bavaria, Germany’s largest state, put the number of gang members at 414, organized into 42 so-called chapters. Last year they launched investigations into 27 members.

In December last year, Dutch prosecutors failed in their efforts to have the Hells Angels declared a criminal association after an Amsterdam court ruled that confidential conversations between members and their lawyers had been bugged illegally.

In an earlier case, 12 members of the related Nomads club were acquitted of the murder of three of their number in the southern Dutch province of Limburg in 2004. The court found that it could not be established precisely who had carried out the murders.

BUSINESS

Elon Musk visits Tesla’s sabotage-hit German factory

Elon Musk travelled Wednesday to Tesla's factory near Berlin to lend his workers "support" after the plant was forced to halt production by a suspected arson attack on nearby power lines.

Elon Musk visits Tesla's sabotage-hit German factory

The Tesla CEO addressed thousands of employees on arrival at the site, accusing “eco-terrorists” of the sabotage as he defended his company’s green credentials.

With his son X AE A-XII in his arms, Musk said: “I am here to support you.”

The billionaire’s visit came a week after power lines supplying the electric carmaker’s only European plant were set on fire in an act of sabotage claimed by a far-left group called the Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group).

READ ALSO: Far-left group claims ‘sabotage’ on Tesla’s German factory

Musk had said then that the attack was “extremely dumb”, while the company said it would cost it several hundred million euros.

A week on, the lights have come back on at the site, but Andre Thierig, who heads the site, said on LinkedIn that it would “take a bit of time” before production is back to full speed.

Industry experts have warned that the reputational impact caused by the sabotage on the region could be more severe than the losses suffered by Tesla.

Tesla’s German plant started production in 2022 following an arduous two-year approval and construction process dogged by administrative and legal obstacles.

Tesla wants to expand the site by 170 hectares and boost production up to one million vehicles annually to feed Europe’s growing demand for electric cars and take on rivals who are shifting away from combustion engine vehicles.

But the plans have annoyed local residents, who voted against the project in a non-binding ballot last month.

After the vote, Tesla said it might have to rethink the plans. Environmental activists opposed to the expansion of the factory have recently also set up a camp in a wooded area near the plant.

READ ALSO: Why is Tesla’s expansion near Berlin so controversial?

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