"We have pulled the plug on one of the biggest criminal rocker associations. Our relentless investigations into the criminal rocker milieu have made it possible to ban the Bandidos Federation West Central," says Interior Minister Herbert Reul. In various raids over the past weeks and months, police officers in NRW have seized enough evidence to confirm that the Bandidos are still organized, violate the law and conduct rocker feuds. "We will not be fooled by flimsy diversionary tactics," emphasizes Reul.

Background

The ban by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI) was the result of several months of hard work by the Hagen police authority responsible. The Hagen police set up an investigation commission in response to the violent clashes between the Bandidos MC Hagen and the Freeway Rider's MC Hagen in 2018. The Hagen investigation commission succeeded in bringing several criminal investigations into the formation of a criminal organization (§ 129 StGB) to court by the public prosecutor's office. The proceedings are still pending. After the criminal proceedings entered the open phase, the NRW Ministry of the Interior suggested to the BMI that an association be banned under the Associations Act. Thanks to the BMI, this ban was quickly implemented. The ban on the "Bandidos MC Federation West Central" means that all Bandidos chapters in NRW are banned. However, this does not apply to other federal states. As of the end of May 2021, there are around 740 Bandidos members in NRW, spread across 28 chapters.