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CRIME

Shooting, burned out car connected to conflict between youth and biker gangs

Police in the town of Holbæk commented on Wednesday on an incident reportedly involving rival gangs, in which shots were fired and a possible getaway vehicle later set alight.

Shooting, burned out car connected to conflict between youth and biker gangs
Police near the scene of the shooting in Holbæk on Tuesday. Photo: Mathias Øgendal/Scanpix 2018

A vehicle probably used to flee from the incident was found on fire, police said Wednesday morning.

A 19-year-old was shot on the shoulder Tuesday evening in an incident police suspect is linked to a conflict between two organised crime gangs.

“We cannot say anything about the motive, but there has been a series of incidents between a group of young people from the Vang district and the biker group Bandidos. That is the area we are looking at,” Central and West Zealand Police Superintendent Kim Lech told Ritzau.

Shots were fired deliberately at the 19-year-old from a car, Ritzau reports. The man’s condition is not critical.

Police said they would like to speak to two men were seen fleeing from the scene in connection with the incident.

The two are described as between 30 and 40 years old and wearing dark jackets with hoods.

“We are very interested in speaking with witnesses who might have seen or heard anything,” Lech said.

The men are suspected of then leaving the area by car, possibly a blue Ford Mondeo estate. Such a car was found ablaze at 4:30 am on Wednesday near the town of Næstved, some 60 kilometres to the south.

Lech did not confirm the car was the one connected to the incident.

“The car matches the information we have. We cannot connect it definitively, but it is reasonable to believe that there is a connection,” he said.

The 19-year old has been discharged from hospital but has shown limited willingness to tell investigators who shot him and why, according to police.

“But we know there have been several repeated and mutual incidents between the biker gang and youths from the Vang area,” Lech said.

A stop-and-search zone – similar to ordinances sometimes used in Copenhagen during spells of gang violence – is currently in place in Holbæk.

The shooting took place outside of the zone, which police will now reportedly consider extending.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen gang conflict has resulted in 11 arrests: police

CRIME

Why Copenhagen police say crime is on the up in Christiania

Crime in Copenhagen’s hippie enclave of Christiania is increasing, police in the capital say following a number of drugs-related arrests.

Why Copenhagen police say crime is on the up in Christiania

Copenhagen Police arrested three men on Saturday for selling cannabis on Pusher Street in the alternative enclave of Christiania, as they continue their efforts to stamp out the area’s former open-air cannabis market. 

According to police, 875 people were arrested for selling cannabis in the first 11 months of 2022, more than in any other year over the past four years. 

A possible explanation for the increase in arrests could be that the rewards for operating hash stands have receded, according to a police spokesperson.

“It is extremely unattractive to stand out there, and therefore a lot of new people come in who have no idea what it is all about. Many of them come from outside the catchment area, and some of them are peripherally associated with a criminal group,” Simon Hansen, head of a Copenhagen Police special unit, told newspaper Politiken.

“It’s a bit – in inverted commas – ‘easier’ for us to catch these people,” he said. 

Around half of the stalls in the street are linked to various gangs and biker gangs, such as Satudarah, Bandidos, Hells Angels and Loyal To Familia, with the rest run by people living in Christiania, the Berlingske newspaper reported earlier this month.

The trend of rising crime occurs against a background of potential housing develop in Christiania, as the enclave’s residents decide on a plan to put affordable housing in the area.

Copenhagen Police last year told news wire Ritzau that the majority of people who are arrested within Christiania come from socially underprivileged or marginalised backgrounds.

They are exploited in gang and biker circles, resulting in them in some cases operating the illicit hash market stalls, according to the police.

Conflicts between organised crime groups have reportedly become more frequently aired in the Pusher Street market.

READ ALSO: Denmark’s ‘freetown’ Christiania hangs onto soul, 50 years on

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