‘Gun telephone’ seized in Hells Angels raids

27 February 2004

AMSTERDAM — Dutch detectives have recovered a “gun telephone” during a series of raids on members of the Hells Angels motorbike club in Amsterdam.

Searches were carried out at the homes of two Hells Angels gang members and a clubhouse in the early hours of Friday. A 38-year-old man was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm and he was due to appear in court later on Friday.

Police spokesman Wim de Bruin said the suspect was detained when a fake mobile telephone capable of firing bullets was found during a search of his home.

De Bruin refused to say whether the raids in Amsterdam were connected to the investigation into the recent murders of three Hells Angels gang members.

Officers in that case have discovered that the three victims were seen getting into a car at the clubhouse Angels Place in Oirsbeek with a fourth man on 11 February.

The men’s bodies were found in a stream in the nearby city of Echt in the south of the country on 13 February.

Police announced they were looking for the fourth man, but there is no suggestion that the man arrested in Thursday night’s raids is connected in any way to the murder case.

Firearms that have been disguised as harmless everyday objects such as pens, phones, books or umbrellas regularly turn up in police searches all over the globe of both serious criminals and individuals who have no obvious connection to the underworld.

Separately, the investigation continues into allegations that Hells Angels gang members in Oirsbeek roughed up two television cameramen who were filming the funeral preparations for two of the murder victims.

Hells Angels members allegedly took a video tape from one of the cameramen. Initially, the club said they would return the tape, but it later emerged that they had destroyed it.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news + crime