Austrian police seizes Nazi weapons in raids from biker gang

Austrian authorities said Thursday they had seized hundreds of weapons, ammunition and Nazi memorabilia and arrested six people after raids on several premises of the right-wing extremist Bandidos motorcycle gang.

Police found a huge weapons stash including about “35 long firearms, 25 submachine guns, 100 pistols, over a thousand weapons components, 400 signal weapons,” the interior ministry said.

The haul was made following 13 house searches in the neighbouring provinces of Upper and Lower Austria carried out Monday, the ministry added in a statement.

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More than 10,000 rounds of ammunition as well as grenade launchers were also seized, it said.

Nazi memorabilia, including daggers, flags, uniform parts, busts and pictures were also found at the homes of the suspects, who were remanded in custody.

After plans by the Bandidos MC motorcycle group to expand to Austria were revealed in late 2022, authorities have been surveilling them.

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Investigations aimed to avoid potential violent clashes between the Bandidos, which has a worldwide network of branches, and their rival Hells Angels MC, as has occurred in Switzerland.

“The investigations have shown the extent to which right-wing extremism is represented in outlaw motorcycle gangs,” domestic intelligence agency (DSN) chief Omar Haijawi-Pirchner said.

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Possessing Nazi memorabilia is illegal in Austria, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler.

Austria long cast itself as a victim after being annexed by the German Third Reich in 1938 and has only in the past three decades begun to seriously examine its role in the Holocaust.