Photo Gallery Zero Tolerance for Biker Gangs
On Monday the chief negotiators for two rival biker gangs -- the Bandidos and the Hells Angels -- agreed to a truce.
Recently both the Hells Angels and the Bandidos have been making German headlines with their violent antics. Their attacks against one another have often involved knives, machetes, guns and even hand grenades.
Scenes from a murder trial in March of this year, where a Bandidos member was allegedly killed by a Hells Angels member. By the end of April, the motorcycle clubs, the Hells Angels and the Bandidos, were banned in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Police arresting members of the Bandidos in late 2009. It was widely accepted that a long-discussed nationwide ban would be recommended at an upcoming meeting of interior ministers of German state governments in Hamburg.
Police in Schleswig-Holstein take down signs from the front of a Hells Angels clubhouse after a ban on the biker gang was made official in the state.
At the end of April, 330 officers, including special forces, searched apartments and headquarters belonging to biker gangs in Schleswig-Holstein.
Police searching Hells Angels headquarters in Schleswig-Holstein at the end of April.
Police in front of gang headquarters in Schleswig-Holstein. The gangs were banned in Schleswig-Holstein in April because they "violate the law and infringe on the constitutional order," according to state officials.
Gang headquarters in Cologne. "The bikers seem to have recognized that they are in danger of tearing themselves apart with this continuous fighting and that they have fewer opportunities to earn money," a criminologist told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
