The Underworld Podcast - Europe's Deadliest Biker War: Hells Angels vs the Bandidos

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

In the 1980's and 1990's, America's biggest outlaw motorcycle gangs were looking to expand all over Europe. Unfortunately, they set their sites on the same countries, and they weren't keen on sharing territory. The Great Nordic Biker War erupted in the 1990s as the Hells Angels and Bandidos clashed for control of drug routes and territory across Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. What began as turf disputes escalated into bombings, shootings, and even attacks with anti-tank weapons o, shocking a population that never expected their streets to resemble war zones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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then sit back and start your day with a morning cup of murder. Go listen to Morning Cup of Murder wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay safe. May 10, 1996, at the Copenhagen International Airport. A gang war is raging. In of all places, Scandinavia. Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are all seeing shootings and bombings, grenade attacks, rocket launchers aimed at clubhouses, things that these countries never really experienced at the time.

Some say the war starts over a battle for territory and drug routes. Others, that it's more a manner of pride and honor after some bad blood incidents. Either way, it's a wild, violent scene, and it's about to get a whole lot wilder and a whole lot more violent. The two warring gangs are both decades-old international 1% or outlaw motorcycle clubs, originally started in the U.S., and now dead set on expansion all over Europe. It's the infamous Hells Angels and their rivals the Banditos. On this particular day, a group of Bandito's members, including the Danish president, are returning from a trip to party with their affiliates in Helsinki, Finland,

who just opened up a new clubhouse. Unfortunately, there are some house angels who had separately been returning from a trip to a tattoo convention and tipped off their clubmates back home to be ready and waiting for the banditos. And that they are in the parking lot of an international airport. A witness will later tell police that he saw 8 to 10 people emerge from a number of cars. They walk over to a park car and unload their guns into the windshield and sprint to a getaway car. The driver of the shot-up car manages to get out, and he's seen dragging another man, bleeding profusely. When all is said and done, three banditos members are wounded, and one is dead, the president of the Danish banditos, Uff Larson.

But the Hells Angels aren't finished that day. 300 miles away at the Oslo International Airport, another group of banditos, this time Norwegians, is arriving back home from the party in Helsinki. They too are ambushed by the Hells Angels. and another member is shot and wounded. Says a police commander, quote, it was a very good professional job, like a military operation. The Hells Angels are not like the Banditos,

who are kamikaze pilots. The Hells Angels always try to measure out the pros and cons. The Banditos have recruited the worst of the worst, the scum, but that made them extremely strong. So there was retaliation after retaliation. So the violence continues. The Bandidos hit back with rocket attacks, their weapons having been stolen from Swedish military depots.

The Angels then break into a prison in Copenhagen and lob a grenade in the cell of a Bandito's VP before spraying it with machine gunfire. There's tit-for-tat attacks almost weekly, with two or three per week in an extremely violent July. Shootings, grenades, anti-tank rackets all across Scandinavia. Even the American leadership of both the Banditos and the Hells Angels say that they've lost control of their Scandinavian counterparts.

It'll come to be known as the great Nordic Biker War. This is the Underworld podcast. Welcome back to the greatest audio experience in the history of the spoken word, The Underworld Podcast, where every week we bring you new stories of international organized crime from the past, present, and future. I'm Danny Gold. I'm joined by Sean Williams. We trade off hosting duties every other week, and we are both journalists who have traveled all over the world, reporting on this sort of stuff, and now we make this podcast because we make money.

off it. Yeah, we do. I'm here. Hello. I did the show as well. Yeah. Yeah. Great, uh, great intro. Uh, as always, bonus episodes are available for the low, low price of $5 a month. We've had, I think, two in the last week, which is a record. We're going to try to keep that up. You can sign up on Spotify right there in the like the page where you click on on bonus things. iTunes, patreon.com slash EnrollPodcast. It goes right to your feed. It's worth it. Merch is available at underworldpod.com. T-shirts, stickers, mugs, even a hoodie. Get your fall fashions ready with a don't Instagram your crimes sweatshirt. And for tips and other assorted whatever advertising inquiries, all that, the underworld podcast at gmail.com. Thanks as always for

your support. Support our advertisers too. And yeah, that's it. That's all I got for you today. Yeah, I've got to update the payment on the website and otherwise we're not going to have one. Anyway, motorcycle gangs, cruise, clubs, whatever you want to call them of Scandinavia. In Holland too, I guess because they factor into it as well. We haven't really done a ton, I think, on Outlaw Bikers. It's honestly not something I'm super familiar with or I've really reported on before. But we did do the crazy Canadian Viker War. There was a two-parter on that.

And, Sean, you've done some like Aussie and New Zealand stuff, right? Because they're pretty active over there. Yeah, they're kind of like the go-betweens from the big narcos to the streets. I went up north, like, what was it? It feels like it may have been in January to interview one of the old sort of former leaders of one of the traditional Biker Clubs here, which is Black Power. That's on the Patreon, so people can check that out. And I think, yeah, I did one of my first episodes on New Zealand as well, way, way back.

It's cool. It's like changing some country to country, right? It's really, really different at the Biker Game world. Yeah, and what they're capable of and what they do. If you want someone who's actually really deep in the culture, there's a guy on Instagram and probably TikTok 2 called Outlaw Archive. And he does some great stuff on, like, the histories, I think really focused on the U.S. ones, Hells Angels, specifically, Banditos too.

And it's fascinating to stuff to see that he pulls off and kind of educates people on. But yeah, the great Northern Biker War, the great Nordic Biker War, Scandinavian Biker War, one of the reasons this is such a big deal is because these countries, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden, in the 80s and 90s, they were pretty violent crime-free countries. I mean, not crime-free, not completely violent crime-free, but they don't have the same level of organized crime you'd find in the rest of Europe, super low murder rates and violent crimes. Of course, now, you know, we've got Sweden having grenade tossing competitions and Malmo and all sorts of gang wars popping off.

But that really wasn't the case back then. I do think besides the bikers, there was some bulk and organized crime groups that were starting to take hold in the 90s. And if I base my knowledge off of Copenhagen, off the Puscher trilogy, which I really do, things were starting to really come together then. But there was nothing like this biker war that. popped off. The story actually starts in Amsterdam in the 1970s, but we should go back to the start of 1% outlaw motorcycle clubs just briefly. The Hells Angels are, of course, you know,

the biggest and most well-known motorcycle club. They're actually named after a B-17 bomber group in World War II. And after the war, motorcycle clubs slash biker gangs, they're springing up all over with a lot in California. Some people say it's mostly vets looking to get a rush, you know, play by their own rules, rebel and all that. But I've also seen that. disputed sometimes. Whatever the case, the first Hells Angels club is founded in 1948 in San Bernardino. And they spring up in the late 40s and by the 60s there's 500 of them and they've gone international in England, Switzerland of all places, West Germany. I think the first full-patch Hells Angel Club in Europe is started in Great Britain in

1969. Yes, Britain mentioned. Nice, get it in early. So proud. Yeah. Quick explainer, full patch means they're officially Hells Angels but there's also, you know, other levels which function as sort of like a probationary period, right? Not just for members, but for full clubs as well. You've got prospect clubs, support clubs. These clubs are trying to be fully made or incorporated as Hells Angels or banditos in this story. So they're down to really put in work, like the dirty work.

And they want to impress the Hells Angels. There's a lot of those groups in this episode. I may just refer to them interchangeably as Hells Angels or Banditos to make it easier to understand for everyone. My apologies to the Outlaw Biker community. But, you know, we run a tight ship here, and I can't confuse Sean. He is sometimes a little on the slow side. That's true.

Mentally, physically. I always work super, like, really work super slow as well, and I'm unproductive. And I'm also really bad in bed. You know, I've heard one of five of those things is definitely not true. And I'll leave the audience to guess which one. Who have you? So the early 60s, I mean, the 60s, the early 70s, this is like the Hunter-S-Thompson era. There's sort of what you imagine Biker Yanks to be, right?

rebels, long hair, beards, tattoos, partying for five days straight, like criminals, but not organized crime. You know, they'd beat the crap out of you, maybe murder a guy or rivals, traffic something, but not like a mafia. But the end of the 60s also sort of signals a new beginning for the biker gangs, especially with the murder at Altamont. That was the Rolling Stone concert where the Hells Angels were providing security, and they stabbed the death a young concert goer, and the whole thing was caught on film.

The concert had gotten ugly. There were fights in the crowd between the Hells Angels and everyone else. And this kid pulled a gun on them and was stabbed to death. And that was sort of like a turning point, I think, not only in that with the Hells Angels, but in like 60s counterculture as well. That's also the year Easy Rider came out. I think, yeah, that was 69. And Honduras Thompson's famous book on The Hells Angels comes out in 67.

So there's a whole romantic lore developing around them and biker gangs in general. There's also this amazing clip on YouTube if you look it up. It's a CBC talk show, I think. and a Hells Angel rides his bike on stage to confront Hunter S. Thompson and have like a joint interview with him. Yeah, it sounds like corny when you say it like that, but it's actually, it's not super sanitized, right? It's actually quite intense. It's worth seeing. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. They were not messing around and it wasn't like now where everything is like,

I don't know, has the feeling of like schlocky or for, for, for, I don't know, use the red clips. It like it feels a lot more authentic then, but maybe that's just me looking back with rose tinted glasses on media. But you're a super young guy in your, what, late 20s? I mean, you know, you're part of the crowd. We're at the same age. I don't know why you're talking nonsense here. Just because, you know, I look a little more tired than you do.

But, yeah, I'm about to come out to New York and celebrate my 25th birthday and we're going to go crazy. Yeah, well, we'll see what happens there. Now, the 70s is really when some biker gangs transition into organized crime from being, you know, of a disorganized hoodlums interested in drugs and partying kind of nature. And their interest starts letting itself towards being a criminal money-making organization. And that's where the European expansion comes in. At the same time this is happening, outlaw biker culture is taking off in Europe. They're starting to see all this stuff about motorcycle gangs, movies, the talk shows, and they're

into it. It's like, you know, American soft power, baby. So in Amsterdam in the 1970s, a Dutch delinquent by the name of Willem, Willem van Baxdell starts his own motorcycle gang called the Creedler Plug East. It's going to be nice for me to butcher, like, you know, people's names on this, like white people names, you know, equal opportunity here at the Underworld podcast. Yeah, I mean, all Dutch names are just funny, right? I mean, there's like, yeah, use, yellow, and their numbers are great, just starts German, ends in English. It's mad, mad language.

Nice canals, though. I like them a lot. Not the most pleasant sounding language. I'm not going to lie to you, you know, but a nice, nice country, you know? I like windmills. You like windmills? Who doesn't, man? I love them.

And we're actually going to talk about windmills in another show. We're going to record soon as well, but not in Holland. Anyway, that's a very weird teaser to like the next show. It's a lot more interesting than windmills, I swear. It's actually probably one of our, it's Burma, it's scam, compound, slave labor. It's Dutch windmills in Burma. Yeah, it's an insane episode. By the way, a lot of this stuff, not what we were just saying, but a lot of stuff in this episode comes from the book, Angel of Angels of Death,

which by, it's by Jewish. William Scher and William Mardson, who are great journalists who cover Outlaw Motorcycle Club, is very thoroughly. They've got a couple books out on them. They're Canadian, I believe. There's also a good YouTube channel hosted by a Swedish guy called Magnus. It's called Magnus explains history. As a lot of biker videos, he's a good source.

So Willem, he's from East Amsterdam. He's a rough and tumble guy. He wants to be like the Hell's Angels. And he envisions himself like the next Sunny Barger, who is one of the founding members of the Okun chapter and something like their celebratory spokesman. Celebratory, celebrity spokesman, but he also, I think he celebrated a lot too. He had a good time.

So these guys like Willem, they love this stuff, and they love the American Biker movies that they're seeing and they want to emulate them. It kind of reminds me of how we talked about this in our Jamaican street gangs episode. That was a two-parter about them in the 60s and 70s. They all fashioned themselves after Western cowboy movies that were filmed in Hollywood,

to the point where they like name themselves after the cowboys. Like, I mean, I love gangster movies and shows and all that, too. But, like, these things do influence people to get into the life. Like, it's definitely inaccurate to say they don't. So Willem, who starts going by Big Will, not the most original nickname, he recruits some like-minded Dutch youth. And they do things like beat up the manager of a convenience store, beat up teachers, beat up students. He actually gets six weeks in jail for one of the assaults.

But when he gets out, him and his crew get into a rumble with a visiting English youth gang. The Amsterdam youth officials, they're so concerned that in 1974, they vote to give him and his gang $100,000 to build their own clubhouse, figuring if they had it, they'd leave people alone. You know, they'd have their hobby and their place to hang out, which is like, I mean, that's the most European shit I've ever heard in my entire life. Spoiler alert, it backfires. Oh, they also approve an annual renewing grant of $12,000 for them to put on youth events and charity things. Are there football teams involved in all of this as well? Because the Dutch and the English fans used to have some pretty frightening tear-ups around this time. And I guess a lot of the hooliganism must have been bound up in organized crime as well, right?

Did you come across it? I did not know that about Dutch hooligans. But I know that eventually the biker gang start recruiting out of the soccer hooligans sort of. They're taking any scumbags they can find. And, you know, like soccer hooligans are going to have some of that. And this is something the clubhouse and the grants and the money, it's something you'll see in some of the Scandinavian countries too. Like the governments of these countries were literally giving these groups money out of their budget to build and rent their clubhouses and have events. Like, seriously, that annual grant actually continues for more than another decade until they realize that the gang is actually all men in their 30s and they haven't done any charity events or stuff for at-risk youth besides recruit them.

Whoopsie. Yeah. By 1977, this gang is a full-on prospect gang for the Hells Angels who are starting to look into expansion, Amsterdam being a huge drug hub and prime target. International Hells Angels from other clubs in Europe, Canada and Australia and the U.S., they come through to check things out and make sure the club is up to speed. They have these big plans. They're also throwing parties. And in one situation, they gang sexually assault a 19-year-old Dutch girl, but the police don't actually do much. And Big Will tries to appease the community with a total.

Toys for Tots type of stuff, which is something the Angels also do in the States. In 1978, the Dutch Hells Angels get full patch status and throw a rager for three days of straight partying. Will and his crew set up shop in Amsterdam's Red Light District. They've got the weed cafes, the nightclubs, they're pushing dope, and they're linking up with all the other criminal groups that are passing through. I think they're also heavily involved in the sex industry. As all this was going on, Big Will starts thinking his next move is going to be to go next door and expand to Scandinavia, which had a whole whole bunch of biker gangs, but not one dominant presence. To do so, he links up with a Danish biker named Bent Svang Nielsen, aka Blondie, which is, you know, they're not so good with the

nicknames, the Dutch bikers. There's plenty of Bentz Fang in the red light dish, am I right? I mean, there's a young Sean Williams joke here, but I hadn't thought of it until you said that, so. Blondie already has five or so crews under him, said to be going on under the Galloping Goose MC Moniker, which is weird, because I think Galloping Goose was a big thing out of Cali already, but whatever. They soon patched over, and the first full-patch Hells Angel Club in Scandinavia in Denmark becomes a thing in 1980. And so they start doing as the Hells Angels do and taking over.

But Denmark has some other biker clubs that aren't particularly fond of the Hells Angels and don't like them taking everything over. A bunch of them unite under the umbrella of what they called the bullshit motorcycle club or the BSMC. I think we got to go with BSM to not get demonetize. They'd set up shop in Copenhagen's premier drug market in a neighborhood called Christiana, which is a fascinating place. Have you, Sean, have you been there?

Yeah, I went there very briefly for like, I took a wander around for a short time, and it felt like it was beyond its peak at the time, kind of like slightly hips and moving. It's pretty cool. It's not on the level of like Burning Man is now, but it's a long way from the old squats in Berlin. I don't know.

I wish I'd live in a squat when I was younger. I think I had the personal hygiene. and the politics for it back then. Definitely had the personal hygiene for it in my 20s. Yeah, I'm with you on that. But it's kind of like, for those who don't know, like this autonomous area that formed, and correct me if I'm wrong, Sean. It formed when like hippies and punks took over abandoned military barracks and set up a squaw community, like right in the middle of Copenhagen. And the Danish- Right in the middle.

Yeah. The Danish and Copenhagen government basically like allowed the whole thing and they allowed them to live outside the system, which meant you could sell and do drugs. there. It's a cool area, supposedly, lots of arts, cafes, all that, big tourist attractions, and a big drug market, which the BSM controlled most of. I saw speculation that at one point, the market did somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000 a day in business, mostly hash and weed, which strikes me as impossibly high. It was $36 million a year, is what they say. Well, I guess if you do the math, but I guess that's like 2008s, right, or whatever the price was back then, like around 2000 sales, which like, doesn't strike me as that far-fetched.

It's like a place where everyone in the city goes to get their weed or their hash, right? Like I guess- No, but if you were trying to stop the, like, they can do drugs in Christiana, but why can't you just put cops on the, like, on the edge of the streets? That's it. Well, they have to search everyone coming out. But I guess, I mean, drug dealing is profitable. Like, thinking about it, like $100,000 a day does not start.

When, am I doing the math, right? Yeah, 2000, 2000, right? 2000 times 50. Yeah, so it doesn't strike me as that like... He's figuring out his next career move

right now. It doesn't strike me as that absurd when I first heard of that. I was like, that's crazy. But yeah, it can really make a lot of money

doing that. I guess 100K in revenue, but who knows what the prop, probably decent profits. Where were we? Anyway. So... You're doing a podcast.

Yeah, doing a podcast. That's right. You're free to go in. Not fantasizing about our career moves. So the Angels, actually, we'll get...

All right, never mind. So the angels, they want control of it. and the BSM refuses to give it up. Then in September of 1983, violence breaks out. According to one source,

four BSM guys show up in a Hells Angels pop. The Hells Angels get tipped off by a bartender that the BSMC guys are there. And Blondie, the leader we talked about, he shows up and promptly stabs two of them to death and injures a third. He'll eventually get sentenced to 16 years, which I think is the matter.

Like, that's what's considered life in a lot of these countries. It's 16 years, at least in Denmark at the time. I believe he's paroled after 10, but he continues to lead the House Angels from prison. The BSM still, they still won't give up the territory. And this is the start of the first Danish biker war, not the great Nordic biker war. Yeah, a bit a bit getting your Balkan war names right there. That's like, that's crazy that he gets out of the 10 just continues to lead the group. So their full argument for lenient sentences is just falling through the floor there.

Yeah, you're going to see a lot of that. A lot of that. And I mean, it seems like, you know, I'm not, I want to do a new update on the Sweden gang stuff because we've talked to, I've talked to some other people and there's been a really good book written. But it seems like, you know, these countries have not really learned much about violent criminal gangs in the past 40 years despite what happens now. But that's another story. Own it all. Pay off your home. Travel for life. Drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one per person. in a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29.

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And the BSMC, they're in way over their heads. First, though, they plant some attacks and they take some shots at the Hells Angels, like literal shots. They shoot up their clubhouse, but no one is killed. Then the Hells Angels go to work. A Hells Angel by the name of Yorgian Nielsen, not to be confused with Blondy Nielsen,

catches the BSMC president who goes by Mackroll, outside his home with his girlfriend, he shoots him in front of her, then runs up and dumps the full clip into him, killing him. He flees to Canada for a year or two, but he comes back and turns himself in. While on the run, he writes his autobiography and publishes it while in prison, and he becomes a sort of celebrity there.

The book is called My Life, and it portrays him, well, he portrays himself as like a victim of Danish society, and he's soon the unofficial spokesman for the angels there. He talks about how they're not criminals, they're just misunderstood outcast. While in prison, he's even invited to schools and clubs to give talks about his life as an angel, like he gets furlough to do that. Says a member of the Danish parliament years later, quote, Back in the 80s, the bikers were looked upon as some folkloristic exotic element.

A lot of youngsters were hanging out on street corners, and the clubs were seen as performing a useful social function, something that would stop them from becoming criminal. I mean, beside the fact that that guy's just written a book about them not being criminals, despite him being a literal criminal. Like, how did they possibly think these clubs were anything other than criminal, like, gangs if they were openly modeling themselves on international drug smuggling operas? I think the Scandinavans are just, you know, they're tolerant people. Dumbies? Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, that, that too. The point is, though, that, like, the Danes were very soft on these guys, like, very soft. We jumped ahead of ourselves, but the war continues.

The replacement president of the BSM has killed in a Christiana pub in 1985, as is a local civilian. Before the war is over, a third president will also be killed. By 1988, eight members of the BSM are dead, as are three innocents and one half a lot of Hells Angel. The BMC at this point, they just surrender. They call the Hells Angels. They tell them they're burning their vest and knocking down their clubhouse. So the Hells Angels are now firmly in control of Denmark and Holland, and no one can touch them for now. In 1988, the Dutch police find documents in a Hells Angels clubhouse of a plan to expand all over Europe. They divided it into

three blocks. First, it's Scandinavia, the Baltics, and Russia, then Great Britain, and then Western Europe. The angels feel untouchable. In 1990, the police raid and arrest every member of a Hells Angels supporters club. Then the prosecutor and a detective get grenades thrown at their houses. But enter the Banditos, another old school American 1% outlaw motorcycle club from the states. They got their start in Texas in the 1960s, and I believe are now the third biggest outlaw motorcycle club in the world after the Hells Angels and the outlaws. They might actually be number two. They fought plenty of wars with the Hells Angels all over the world.

Yeah, just a shout out to New Zealand, where. in typical start, took him until 2012 to set up here, and got immediately smashed by the cops, I think. So, go Kiwis, as usual, doing it. Doing it late, doing it bad. At the time, they're

considered like the Hells Angels' main enemies in the States, and they two start expanding like crazy, first in Australia, and then with their eyes on Europe. They move into Marseilles, France in 1989, which the Angels immediately try to put a stop to, killing the BP of the club the Bandito's patched over. Then there's a major

recruitment rush for both motorcycle clubs across Europe. There's tons of these small motorcycle gangs there, as well as other gangs eager to be affiliated with the two. Blondy Nielsen still in prison, but overseeing things for the Hells Angels, Scandinavia, wants to now expand to Sweden and has the idea to have three biker gangs in Malmo, vying to become House Angels, fight each other with the last one standing becoming a support club. Which ends up being called, the club is called the Dragles, or it's Swedish for Scum. They're anointed in 1990 and become full patch in 1993,

led by a psychotic neo-Nazi named Thomas Mueller or Mueller. What's it with the O with the little dots on top? Come on here. Mueller. Mueller? Mueller. There we go. But around the same time, things are happening with Banditos in Sweden and Denmark.

First in Copenhagen, there's a Hells Angeles support club called the Morticians that has a falling out with them, then morphs into another club called the Undertakers. The Undertakers also take in some former members of the bullshit motorcycle club that had formerly worn with the Angels that we just talked about. In 1992, they reach out to the Bandito's members in the U.S. in France, hoping to patch in and get protection from them. The Banditos patched them over at the end of 1993. Things are starting to look like there might be a biker warcoming.

But the biker leadership in the U.S. on both sides don't want this. They have a meeting in Paris to work out a peace treaty or a truce or non-aggression pack of sorts. Sunny Barger, then the leader of the Angels, even calls Thomas Mueller, the leader in Sweden, I just mentioned, to the states to lay down the law. He also meets with Bandito's U.S. leaders in Texas. They really want to avoid this.

You know, they're making money at this point. Wars have the opposite effect when you're in a criminal organization. So things are starting to get heavy, but they come to this compromise where their banditos are required to let the angels know where they're expanding and the hell's angels get a vote.

But again, this is a deal made by leadership, American leadership. The European bikers are less inclined to abide by it. But you've got these outsiders making peace without really taking no account what these guys think. So the Hells Angels, you know, they say fine that Medeos can have these two clubs in Denmark, but that's it.

No more expanding into Scandinavia. Sweden is officially Hells Angels only territory. But the Banditos Europe are already making moves like they're not going to listen. To the point where U.S. leadership is saying, the U.S. Bandito's leadership is saying they can't control them. The Banditos there are led by, a guy named Jim Tindon.

Jim takes in some angels that have been kicked out, as well as some former surviving members of the bullshit club, and you can kind of see this bad blood building. Yeah, it's getting pretty chopped up. I feel like also surviving members of the bullshit club would be a pretty good name for us, and also a good t-shirt. It's actually not bad, actually. It's not a bad way to describe us.

So there is this phenomenon, though, in biker gangs in Europe, which I think is different from the States, but I'm not sure, where a guy in one gang will get kicked out or part-we. and then join the rival. And it happens a lot. Like, really, it seems like half these clubs are made up of guys who are once in the other club, the rival. One of the guys who does this is like a real brolic enforcer by the name of Yen Clark Nielsen.

They're all named, or Nelson, who helps start the Great Nordic Biker War, according to history with Magnus. He had joined a Hells Angels support club in Denmark in 1984. He helps kill one of the presidents of the BMC during that first war, and he's a really physically imposing guy. He does debt collection, security. He enforces discipline with other members. In 1991, he co-foundts another Hells Angel prospect club called the Morbids.

He's violent. He's always looking for a war. And he wants the Hells Angels to go to war with the Undertakers as they're looking to join the banditos. The undertakers, prior to joining the banditos, they were actually looking to make peace efforts. And Clark was totally against the Angels making peace with them. He's always sabotaging the truce talks, which is a big reason that the Undertaker's end up joining the banditos. Around the same time,

the Hells Angels tell Clark that his crew, Morbids MC, can patch over only if they unite with another prospect club that Clark happens to hate. He's pissed off and he refuses. And now he has this beef with the Angels. So he takes Morbids MC

and it becomes a prospect club for the banditos in Sweden before Jim Tindon, the leader, patches them over to become full banditos members in 1994, violating the non-aggression pact. Wow, that's a hell of a lot of chopping and changing between the two groups.

Well, the three groups, is it? Yeah. I feel like the high mark of these biker clubs exactly the same time that Scandinavia's football teams are killing it as well. Like Denmark 92, Sweden 94, there's got to be some crossover there. It might be the subject of a, I don't know, if anyone wants a 10,000 word Harper's story, maybe that could be the next subject. Yeah, I honestly have no idea. I do remember playing with Sweden, though, and like FIFA, what was it, FIFA 96? PIVA 95?

Yeah. They had that guy, Larson was his name? That sick, uh... Yeah, yeah, Henrik Larson, man. Yeah, dude, he was a legend. Yeah. Was that Pfeva 96 or 98? I don't remember, dude, but...

He went on forever, man. He was he, I think he was tied like 40. Anyway, um, where was I? Yeah, a lot of names, are we making sense? Are they confusing you? Different clubs, all that stuff? I think we're getting through. I think you're doing a good job, yeah, because it is pretty frustrating.

It is pretty, like, confusing. And to add to that, it's like Scandinavian. names that everyone's called like Anders Nielsen. Yeah, yeah, they're all named Nielsen. But I think the gist is getting through hopefully to our listeners. So a couple of shootings happen, but no one's really injured after the Angels send a support club to shoot up a bandito's clubhouse. But it's starting to look like the war is just completely on.

Now, there's some different theories as to why the war really kicks off. One is that it's over control of drug routes and trafficking in these territories, hash and weed coming from Morocco, heroin from Afghanistan, and Amsterdam, which at the time is a huge ecstasy manufacturing. Club. It should add, too, that Hales and Angels have already at this point expanded to Finland and Norway. So there's territory that they're fighting over. But there's also a pride and honor motorcycle club thing. And this theory says that the banditos had humiliated some Hells Angels that they find in a restaurant, and this kicks things off. When during this incident, the Hells Angels are forced to hide, I think one or two guys are forced to hide in a woman's bathroom.

Reports the LA Times, quote, ostensibly, the deadly duel is about biker supremacy and was set off, according to one version, by an insulting, barroom brawl in Denmark across the Orson Street. Orson Street? Sean. Is that right? Orismed. Yeah. As the story goes, a desperate hell's angel locked himself in the woman's restroom to escape a carousing gang of bandito's. That humbling episode, or perhaps one of many like it, since no one can say for certain, grew into a deadly tit for tat over biker honor and shame. But a Swedish detective tells them otherwise, quote, this isn't about motorcycles. It is about power, territory, and the criminal market.

the Stockholm detective said, they usually travel by car or limousine and 60% of them don't even have driver's licenses for motorcycles. Many of them were criminals before they joined these clubs and they were main criminals, which actually sounds similar to the Canadian bike awards where they kind of wore suits

and operate much more like a mafia than a roving band of meth-up leather vest, clad, long-haired roughnacks. I guess it's probably both, right? These clubs are definitely there to make big money and plenty are in it to be kingpins, but also a lot of the grunts are just guys. who like wearing the outfits and having drunk fights, right?

It's a bit like, it's a bit like our listenership. Yeah, I mean, I think that probably is accurate for Scandinavia, but when we did the Canadian stuff, it's really seemed like there were more of a, you know, mafia-style criminal organization where riding a motorcycle didn't really factor in too much by the time the sort of late 80s and 90s hit. Whatever the case, in February of 1994, 15 Danish bandanos are throwing a party at a rooftop bar.

The Hells Angels decided to crash it, shots are fired, one biker is killed, and a bunch more injured. Around this time, the banditos have an idea, an idea that's going to take things to the next level, and garner headlines all over the world. Sweden and Denmark, during the 80s and 90s, they have mandatory military service for young men, and they also have these state-sponsored militias, not like Mad Max Libyan war style stuff, like citizens around the country who were on call of some sorts. And I assume it was like a Cold War thing, right?

That makes the most sense, like in case the Soviet Union invades. But for these militias, they had armories or weapons depots all over the country, and they were basically unguarded. You know, they had small weapons, but also grenades, anti-tank rockets, RPGs, and again, unguarded with like a padlock on them, which is just good stuff. So on February 20, 1994, the banditos raid a Swedish weapons depot and steal shoulder-fire light anti-tank weapons, also grenades, guns, ammo. And the book by Sharon Mardston quotes a Swedish Intel police official who says, it was probably dozens of times that they broke into various depots. Only the Defense Department really knows. Yeah, that is a clown show, man.

That's nuts. Yeah, yeah. Also landmines, automatic rifles, explosives. When all was said and done, 36 weapons depots will have been looted before the governments get a hold of them, mostly by the banditos. The Hells Angels start getting Soviet and Yugoslavian weapons, including rocket launchers from eastern block countries, which I think is now where the very different gangs of Malmo still get some of their weapons. Again, the U.S. counterparts are trying to calm things down.

They have meetings with their leaderships, but Mueller for the Angels isn't listening, and neither is Jim and the Banditos, Jim Tindon. The attacks kick off, a lot of them near Malmo, where the two Swedish clubs are. Shootings every week, I mean, which is crazy for Sweden at the time. Not now, but at the time. Like, this is Europe. This is northern Europe. This isn't supposed to happen. Technically, there's only one full Hells Angels chapter in Sweden and one Bandidos, but there's 15 or so other motorcycle crews looking to get involved and earn their stripes,

mostly on the side of the Angels, and it's a couple thousand bikers when you add them all up, and they're ready for war. The banditos come in blazing, just shooting away, no real strategy, just trying to put fear and bullets in the hearts of the Hells Angels bikers. But the Hells Angels are different. They're tactical, they're strategic. On July 17, 1995, the Swedish bandito president is out for a long ride on his Harley on a deserted stretch of a road

after coming back from a meeting in Helsinki, Finland. The angels had set up an ambush with a rifle, and he shot five times and killed. The same day, two more banditos are killed in Helsinki and Finland. Wright Sharon Mardson, quote, as the war spread through Scandinavia, machine gun battles broke out in Oslo and Copenhagen. Both sides lived in constant fear of attack from car bombs, drive-by shootings, and rocket attacks. It wasn't unusual for a biker. to find a hang grenade strapped to his ignition.

A week later, the Banditos launched rockets at the Hells Angels Clubhouse in Finland, but no one is hurt. 1996, though, that's when things really kick off. Every few weeks, someone is being gunned down and bombs are being tossed across Scandinavia. And then we have cold open with the twin airport attacks, the subsequent grenade attacks in the prison, and all hell just breaking loose. Here's a rundown of attacks from just July of 1996. July 3rd, bomb found in Banditos linked home in Denmark. July 10th, bomb planted in Bandito's car in Denmark. July 15th, Danish Bandito shot and killed near Oslo.

July 19th, shot fired at Hells Angels sympathizer in downtown Oslo. July 21st, bomb found outside Hells Angels' Copenhagen Clubhouse. July 23rd, Banditos members shot and wounded in Sweden. July 25th, Hell's Angels shot and wounded in prison cell in Denmark. Was this making big news back then? This is insane. It's like a fool. It is a full war. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there were, this was making international headlines. You know, like the AP was getting reports in the LA Times and all that with just kind of the worst, um, the worst headlines you've seen newspapers having. Like a lot of, uh, making the same something as Rod in Denmark sort of pun in that. Why, it's not pun, but joke in the headline like 40 times. Stuff about biker wars are revving up, uh, Vikings references and things like that. So it was making news for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. And can grenade and gun attacks in jails is wild, even by like Americans there's. I don't even know if that was happening in like Latin America at the time, you know, like in Mexico, where the cartels doing this. Like now in Brazil, you know, they have right. 40 people get killed. But was it happening in the early 90s? I don't remember. I don't know if specifically it was.

So it happening in like northern Europe where they're supposed to be, you know, the most civilized among us, as they will like to think of themselves. Why am I being so hateful towards over there? No, they're great. But yeah, it was shocking. This is a paragraph from the Tampa Bay Times, though, speaking of international coverage, about a Danish cop, quote, in Copenhagen's police headquarters, Perra Larson, Detective Commander,

makes little attempt to disguise his glee at the damage the gangs are doing to one another. The groups are fighting one another, and no innocent bystander has yet been heard, he says. If two groups really want to kill each other, the police in a modern democracy can do little to prevent it happening, which the takeaway from that is great. Like, I really think there is something you can do,

to stop it, you know? Like I think even a democracy, you can... Yeah, possibly. Yeah, you can shut things down. But what? Let's backtrack for a second. So we had that cold open. The Angels ambush Banditos at two international airports,

Copenhagen and Oslo. They also kill the leader of the Danish Banditos. Then there's the rocket attacks at the Hells Angels Clubhouses, two, four hours apart. The first one causing no injuries, but burns down an annex, and the second one fails to detonate.

Then the Angels break into a prison in Copenhagen and lob a grenade in the cell of a bandito's VP before spraying it with machine gunfire, which is insane. One report says he only survives because he has a wooden leg. Another report says he actually loses his leg in that attack, but that might have been

a separate attack. Either way, after that, the Hells Angels, they sent a mail bomb to another bandito that's in prison to and then stroll into a minimum security facility and throw a grenade through a jail cell window, critically wounding another bandito member.

Here's the independent summarizing, some of the goings on. Quote, Morden Traybin, a bandito's leader, lost a leg this week after the enemy Hells Angels lobbed a grenade into his cell at an open prison. The brothers hit back fast, opening fire on a Hells Angel. Paul Den Jacobson at his girlfriend's home

in Copenhagen. Quote, what would you do if someone chopped your brother? Asked Jim the Bandito spokesman, giving an interview by mobile phone. We have our honor and our pride. We are one big family. What I wouldn't do, I think, is confess my crimes to reporters while on the phone. No, no, definitely

do do that. Just do it with one of us. Yeah. Yeah, actually, yeah, call me and Sean. Let us know. A couple of months later, on October 1996, the Hells Angels are throwing a Viking Fest at their clubhouse in Copenhagen. The clubhouses by that point are like fortified, super secure, ready for anything. There's

300 people there. Bandito climbed some buildings nearby, and at 3 a.m., he fires a rocket launcher right into the clubhouse. There's a monster explosion. Two people are killed, 18 injured. One biker is heard fleeing from the burning clubhouse screaming, the idiots got us.

There's a second rocket found later. It could have been much worse, but the guy decided to flee instead of firing it. He ends up getting life in 1998, but again, 16 years. One of the killed is a civilian, a 29-year-old woman who was allegedly at the party

because the hell's angels had invited their neighbors to improve their image, which, yeah, I don't know. Either way, a civilian dying, it really changes things. Rocket attacks killing a young woman in the middle of Copenhagen

are going to have that effect. the Danish lawmakers move quick they pass a law kicking all bikers out of their clubhouses and raid them angry civilians even take sludge hammers to one of them here's a local reporter summarizing it quote the first step was to bar bikers from having clubhouses

in populated areas because they represented a threat to their neighbors all 15 clubhouses have since been closed and the gangs no longer have any gathering place they have removed their usual regalia and gone underground regalia regalia yeah I don't know

I mean of all the all the pronunciations in this. That's the one I'm worried about. Security program on spreadsheets, new regulations piling up, and audit dread? It's time for Vanta. Vanta automates security and compliance, brings evidence into one place, and cuts audit prep by 82%. Less manual work, clear visibility, faster deals, zero chaos. Call it compliance, or call it, compliance.

Get it? Join the 15,000 companies using Vanta to prove trust. Go to VANTA.com. slash calm. A member of the Danish parliament also notes that some clubhouses have been established with rent subsidies from municipalities and had benefited from other grants

that we talked about. And then in amazing Scandinavian fashion, some of the neighbors think the whole thing is just unfair. This is from the Washington Post. The bikers are gone from that street, taking with them the local threat. But there is no sense of triumph among the neighbors. They are suspicious of the

recent talk from Danish Justice Department officials that the bikers called Rockers here, after the 60s British term mods and rockers might be specifically forbidden to congregate. I don't like this special kind of law, said dry cleaner Henry Pearson, who lives across the street from the now-raised clubhouse. Who knows? It might work against other groups.

Like? Like Jehovah's Witnesses, religious groups, he says, that's not freedom. Kirsten Monberg, another neighbor, said she was frantic when one of the angels asked her seven-year-old son to go get him a pack of cigarettes. It is legal for a seven-year-old to buy cigarettes here.

I was scared, she said, but she quickly added, The rockers have to be somewhere. They are human beings in our country. They have rights. The bikers concur. Oh, wow. If the government now completely prohibits the banditos,

then they're declaring total bankruptcy and we're no longer living in a civilized society with rights. Bandito's leader, Jim Tindon, told the tablet in newspaper. Oh, wait, was that your phrase? The bikers concur, because I think that's like the most corsese phrase. No, no, it's from the article. Oh, God, sorry.

I thought that was you. That's such a cool little phrase. But I mean, it's a, like, you know, they're saying that they need to be a civilist society. And the banditos are the one who just launched a rocket at a party full of people. I don't know, man. Yeah, don't be an NIMBY. Yeah. But yeah, you can kind of see like the genesis of why Sweden has this inability,

or Scandinavian general, the inability confront the gangs that are there now, right? And Sweden especially. Like, it's not new. Like, this was going on in the 80s and 90s. others that will have their own idea on how to solve things, writes Washington Post, quote, author Jorgian Nudson, wrote an open letter to the Rockers

to propose a solution out of Viking tradition, home gang, a definitive mono-o-mano on an island. Warring parties would agree on the time, place, weapons, and rules of the duel. The war would be over, and even the defeated would still have their honor. That was before anti-tank missiles, which I actually think,

that actually rules. That would be a great idea for gang wars to be solved, you know? the bikers though Oh man They do not take him up on it The war rages on Lots of shootings and bombings A few murders

Way more attempted murder In May of 1997 A number of grenades are lobbed At the homes of some Hells Angels The police are now though Definitely taking it seriously In March of 1997 The New York Times details

How the night Of a Hells Angels Clubhouse party To celebrate the opening Of their third chapter in Sweden Five years 300 cops post up outside And word spreads Internationally about the war

So much so that rock machine Which is a notorious Canadian club that had been embroiled to the war with the Hells Angels in the 90s that is Insanely violent way more so than this We did a two-part episode Yeah Sends some of their people to Sweden and try to make an alliance with the banditos and patch over Because they want to like get their protection in Canada But they're deported just as soon as they touched down

In that summer 1997 though Time is kind of running out in the biker war as everyone even the bikers are sick of it in June of 19 97, we get the final straw, and it's actually in Norway. The president of Oslo Hells Angels, who went by The Rat, has an idea. He rallies the support club to organize a car bomb, a minivan pack with dozens of kilos of explosives. The target is a former president for the Hells Angels Copenhagen who have been kicked out and since joined the Banditos. On the night of June 4th, one member wearing a wig and disguises a woman, drives the van derives the van derives clubhouse, parks it, and then lights a fuse, and then bicycles away with a bicycle he brought.

The explosion rocks the neighborhood, damages a bunch of nearby buildings, three banditos are injured, and it kills an innocent woman driving by. I think she was in her 50s, and badly injures her husband. Reporter's nearby, he happens to get this scene. He starts reporting live,

and the whole country, including the king, is allegedly listening in as a propane tank explodes again and sort of like the whole kind of country holds his breath when this happens. They're all shocked, so much so that the Prime Minister of Norway visits the scene the next day. all the leadership of the Scandinavian countries set up a meeting to discuss the Barker War.

The bikers themselves are afraid at this point. All their businesses are destroyed. They're losing money. The public hates them. Everyone is tired of the violence. The American leadership of both gangs are also having meetings in the States trying to figure something out. Yeah, that's kind of one of the questions I want to ask you, like researching this, how closely involved are the OGs in the U.S. then, with these European franchises?

Are they hands on? Are they kind of like the bosses or are they just letting things go? It's tough to surmise because I assume, and forever that I've read, they are hands-on. You know, they do dictate things, but it seems like there is some autonomy. You know, they didn't want this war, and it seems to be happening. Maybe they didn't care that much about their not being a war, and they're like, you got to do what you got to do. But it seems like there is some independence. And that guy, Big Jim ends up being like, I think one of the three most powerful in the banditos over the course the next decade or two.

So, yeah, I think, I think, you know, there is some top-down stuff, but there is also some autonomy. but I also could be wrong. I'm sure someone will get mad and inform me in the YouTube comments about the case. The Scandinavian governments actually have to petition the U.S. to let leaders from the clubs come to the U.S. to negotiate a peace deal. Finally, both Nordic gangs meet

with the police even providing security for the meetings. I think the danger of the Swedes also hire a lawyer to help negotiate the treaty. On September 25th, 1997, our old paled blind in Eilsen, the president of House Angels Denmark, and Jim Tindon, the European president for the banditos,

shake hands on live TV. And they're full like uniforms with the leathers and everything. They then give a press conference on the end of the great Nordic Biker War, which lasted three years, 11 dead,

400 violent incidents, 74 known murder attempts, and some disappearances. In total, 138 people are sentenced for the violence of 1996 in 1997 to a total of 240 years.

Which again, like, that would be the total sentence for one person in America. for like a double murder, you know? Like, we need the middle ground, we need the middle ground, folks. Like, there should be a middle ground somewhere. But yeah, the violence does actually stop between these two gangs. The peace treaty holds for the most part.

The authorities are thrilled, but they shouldn't be. Because what actually happens is the bikers carve up Scandinavian Europe so they can get to work making money through drugs, extortion, robbery, prostitution, whatever else. They get so detailed than carving up the territory. You know, we're talking certain bars. cafes and cities, and they start expanding rapidly, without the fear of violent confrontation, at least from their opposing gang. The Angels that chapters in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

The banditos expand as well. They soon have 171 members in Denmark and 13 clubs, four in Sweden, two in Finland, two in Norway. This also doesn't include support clubs, probationary clubs, and all that. The book I'm using as a source was written in 2006, and it claims that from 1998 till then, the number of bikers in Europe doubled. And, you know, sure, the Scandinavian governments have cracked down here and there,

but the bikers as of today are still super powerful. Of course, they're also competing now with what the press in those countries deem or call immigrant gangs, which is the stuff we hear about in Sweden, the ones that are ratcheting up the violence there to levels, like, not even seen during the Biker Wars. And I think we've done an episode

in the Macro Mafia, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Games like that. Yeah. You've also got the Albanians. They're definitely carving out their drug-dealing empires as well. There's always incidents, though.

Like in March of 2001, a former Bandito's president is shot 26 times and killed in Copenhagen. He had been thrown out of the Banditos and started a Hells Angels support club. 2008, the Hells Angels fight a multi-year war with street gangs in Denmark over the drug market. The Banditos have their own fights with street gangs as they start growing.

In 2009, somebody tries to kill Blondy Nielsen. The treaty is actually called off in 2011 and there hasn't been a major war since then. In September 2012, the Copenhagen's, Hagen Post reports, quote, over 100 members of biker gangs were arrested by police in a coordinated effort against 18 gang strengthholds across Zealand yesterday. Police confiscated guns, knives, axes, drugs, and anabolic steroids in the raids, which were an attempt to assert control ahead of a gang where they suspect is brewing.

Yeah, I mean, for those who don't know, Zealand is a big island in Denmark, which New Zealand is named after, so just in case there's any confusion there. I actually didn't know that when I was doing this episode. I was confused there for a second. So you learn something new every day, man. We really are one of the greatest educational podcasts in the entire world. Wow. But it's true.

Yeah, it is true. Big Jim Tindon also grows the hell of the banditos. He increases their numbers to 1,600 and becomes the third most powerful member of the club after the U.S. and Australian president. In April, 24, the Danish government initiates legal proceedings to dissolve the Danish banditos, formally citing their especially brutal behavior. Quote the AP, the head of the Danish police's national special crime union. it told broadcaster DR that the banditos are the largest and most violent gang in Denmark and that the group has been expanding very significantly in recent years.

So I don't think they're getting government grants anymore. I don't think they're seen as pleasant, like, you know, folk like Vikings, but they're definitely still there and law enforcement seems to be trying to still get a hold on them. But I think they're taking it way more seriously than they did in the early 90s. Yeah. Wow. What a story. that's gone that's not an optimistic uh no to end it on but we don't do that so that's fine i mean

you know they're just the game like i don't this isn't the end of the world type stuff here but uh anyway we could just end every single episode that's the game it's not the end of the world here uh patreon dot com cuss in the world podcast Spotify iTunes definitely sign up for those bonuses guys they are well worth it we let our hair down you know we say stuff on those stash houses that uh we We don't allow ourselves, believe it or not to say here, a lot of Sean views, I think you guys would find extremely interesting and extremely offensive. Yeah, they're very controversial. Yeah, very controversial. And if you want to hear them, you've got to join the Patreon and hear those bonus episodes where he's got a lot of theories.

Let's just say. They're all connected, though. At the end of the day, they're all connected. Whatever, yeah, people are tuning. Anyway, take care, guys. Thanks for listening. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money.

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