“Is Switzerland beginning to experience a ‘turf war’ between motorcycle clubs?” wonders in title Time.
The local daily Le Nouvelliste reported the beating of a Bandidos member by five suspected Hells Angels on Saturday evening September 10 in a bar in Sion, Valais. A scene “of rare violence” according to witnesses.
According to Le Temps, “it’s a new chapter in the confrontation between the Hells Angels and the Bandidos”, two motorcycle clubs from the United States, “on Swiss soil. […] The scene is reminiscent of the clashes that surrounded the trial of 22 bikers in Bern in early June, or the shooting between the two gangs in a Geneva bar in late May.
“There will be return matches”
“Since the beginning of the 1970s and the creation of the Zurich branch of the Hells Angels, Switzerland was under the complete domination of this motorcycle club, recalls the Swiss newspaper. But in recent months the situation has changed. The rivals of the Bandidos have established themselves in Thun, but also in Sion. These desires for expansion, which put an end to the peace treaty that existed between the two bands, will they make Switzerland the scene of a ‘turf war’?
For William Hippert, head of the French information, intelligence and strategic analysis service on organized crime, quoted by Time, “Recent events in Switzerland have created a reason for the two clubs to go to war. There will inevitably be return matches. And to add:
“The conflict can last. It will either end with one of the two clans gaining the upper hand, or with a compromise. Peace treaties have, for example, been signed in Germany, Belgium or Scandinavia.”