Gang wars in Switzerland. A rich country has a problem with organized crime
They work in groups. They are ready to use violence, or at least they have no scruples. In pursuit of profit or power, they use structures resembling corporations.
Group members often come from abroad or act on behalf of people living abroad.
Our friendly Broncos have been here for just as long. In 2010, Outlaw MC joined, an offshoot of the club that rarely appears in public. In addition, five branches of the Bandidos have settled here. This is a provocation for the Hells Angels.
These groups have hierarchical structure and follow their own rules.
They operate internationally and have cross-border connections. They are accused violent crimes, property crimes and drug crimes.
Acts of violence take place mainly among rockers. This is what happened, for example, in May 2019 in Belp in the canton of Bern clashes with firearms between the Hells Angels, Broncos and Bandidos, which injured three club members. At the beginning of summer 2022, 22 rockers appeared in court in connection with this. The main defendant, a Bandidos member, was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Gang wars
— Hells Angels claim a superior position on the Swiss scenewhich consists of several smaller clubs, confirms Berina Repesa from the Federal Police Fedpol. Most groups that have tried to establish branches in Switzerland in recent years have fallen apart.
Also from Germany in 2016 came Turkey's Osmanen Germania and their Kurdish rivals Bahoz. Osmanen Germania, who support Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were investigated for arms smuggling from Switzerland.
In addition, there was the threat of a gang war between the nationalist Turks and the anti-fascist rockers from Bahoz who had settled in Zurich, Basel, St. Gallen and Schaffhausen.
Officially, both gangs broke up six years ago. However, the Zurich prosecutor's office is again investigating 25 alleged Bahoz members for attempted murder and causing bodily harm.
The grandson method
Almost all cantonal police know this pattern: fraudsters call pensioners, invent crisis situations, intimidate them until they hand over their savings. The so-called the method for a grandson is a specialty of Polish and Romanian family clans. It was invented by the Polish king of the Roma, Arkadiusz L., also known as Hoss. His son Marcin K., nickname Lolli, he extorted over 1 million Swiss francs from Swiss seniors (at the current exchange rate PLN 4.6 million).
In 2021, in Buly in the canton of Zurich, a trial was held of two Romanian women who extorted approximately PLN 150,000. francs (PLN 695,000) from a 96-year-old resident of Nurensdorf.
Youth gangs are also a problem in Switzerland. They harass passers-by, commit acts of vandalism, rob, and sometimes even use violence against rivals from other districts.
In 2021, a 20-year-old man was killed following a knife fight between two suburban gangs in Biel. A 21-year-old man suffered serious injuries. They both belonged to a youth gang from La Chaux-de-Fonds. — The percentage of youth belonging to gangs or groups is slightly lower than the international average and amounts to less than 7%. – says Dirk Baier.
Italian mafia
“In Switzerland we are talking about groups composed mainly of young men who consider public places as their territory,” says Baier. — Sometimes they have knives, but they don't really have any other weapons. Street fights like we saw in Malmo or Stockholm, for example, would be unthinkable in Switzerland, he adds. Reason: Due to their small size, Swiss cities are more transparent and control over young people is better.
It is also present in Switzerland. It is estimated that the 'Ndrangheta has around 20 local cells and affiliates in almost all cantons, while the Calabrian clans rule from their homeland. Their main source of income is cocaine trade in Europe. Gangs take advantage of Switzerland due to its less restrictive regulations on money laundering and illegal arms trade compared to Italy.
Communication is increasingly taking place in digital form and is encrypted. This requires much more analytical work, says Berina Repesa from Fedpol. — To combat the mafia, cooperation between the police and non-police entities is also needed. In the fight against the mafia, the exchange of information between offices keeping land and mortgage registers and commercial registers is becoming more and more important, he notes. The 'Ndrangheta eagerly laundered drug money by purchasing real estate.
In the international cocaine trade, it cooperates with Balkan cartels that have connections in Switzerland, as well as with the Nigerian mafia “Czarny Topór” operating here, as well as with Dominican gangs.
As federal prosecutor Sergio Mastroianni tells Blick, this is a fairly new phenomenon. — Criminal organizations constitute a cross-border and dynamic problem – he emphasizes. Therefore, many investigative activities must be carried out under international legal assistance, which does not speed up investigations. Moreover, it is difficult to prove mafia members' role in a criminal organization in a Swiss court.
