Five Bandidos gang members were arrested today and charged with assault by the Northern Zealand Police for allegedly planning to attack rival gang members.
The arrests came after a fire Wednesday morning gutted an industrial building in Frederikssund that was believed to have been a Bandidos hangout.
So far 34 people all aged 17 to 38 have been arrested for their involvement in setting the fire. All have connections to various gangs from throughout the region.
Twenty-six of 34 have been imprisoned and the remaining eight were scheduled to appear before a judge later today. If convicted all face life in prison.
The arrested Bandidos members claim the building was not their hangout, but the police are convinced that it is somehow related to the gang.
"We see the fire as having been an attack against the Bandidos that was carried out by several people with ties to gangs and we consider it a serious escalation [of the on-going conflict]," Michael Hellensberg, chief superintendent with the Northern Zealand Police, told the Ritzau news bureau.
The fire happened only a few days after a group of men attacked another group with bats. The police suspect the attack stems from a conflict between Bandidos and a local Frederikssund gang.
"We have various indications that there have been tensions between a gang in Frederikssund and Bandidos and our theory is that this is an escalation of that," Hellensberg said.
