01x04 - Episode 4

[bunniefuu]

[mysterious music playing]

[Christensen] I never hid.

I've never had an unlisted

number or address protection.

I decided when it started

that I wasn't going to do that.

At one point I realized

I was being followed.

BJARNE CHRISTENSEN

FORMER OPERATIONS MANAGER

I'd been trained

to detect that type of stuff,

and I started picking things up.

Someone tried to as*ault me on the train

on the way to Copenhagen.

My house has been trashed twice.

The first time was a summer morning.

Cars suddenly slammed

on their brakes in the street.

There was a clicking sound, then all

the windows facing the street exploded.

During that time, I was always armed.

I always brought my HK home with me.

I kept it by my bedside at night,

so I could reach it.

What started out as a hippie dream,

ended up as a brutal nightmare.

[The Wholesaler] If there's demand for

something and there's money to make,

people like me will swoop in

and capitalize.

[Larsen] On one side are the drug dealers,

and on the other side

are the combat-ready cops.

When we strike, we follow through.

- [people screaming]

- [tense dramatic music playing]

[Larsen] And in the middle

are the Christianites.

SHAME

I felt like a hostage caught

between drug dealers and cops.

[man] What the hell are you doing?

They wanted to hurt each other.

It was It was w*r.

We thought, "f*ck them."

I've been in situations thinking,

"You're dead, you won't survive."

[Lykke] We got to the point that

we had always feared.

[g*n blast]

Someone was shot dead in Pusher Street.

That k*lling became the final straw

in decades of fighting over Pusher Street.

g*ng w*r

PUSHER STREE

[mysterious music playing]

[Norton] If you take stock

of the criminal underworld of Copenhagen,

it becomes apparent that

some major changes are on the way.

In the wake of the Nordic Biker w*r,

which ended in the late nineties,

there was a vacuum of power

CARSTEN NORTON

AUTHOR & JORNALIS

which created opportunity

for new factions to form.

Back then, they were referred to

as immigrant gangs.

Today, we'd call them street gangs.

- [distant siren blaring]

- [tense dramatic music playing]

[Sandberg] New players will start

to emerge in the scene, you know?

And that will always be the case.

BRIAN SANDBERG - PODCAST h*s

& FORMER HA MEMBER

There will always be competition,

especially in crime.

You can't fight that.

There's never a lone ruler.

[Norton] If you asked the police,

immigrant gangs had, for years,

been involved

in supplying the bikers with cannabis.

There was a suspicion

that a large portion of that cannabis

was being traded in Christiania.

In the past, it had been assumed

that the biker gangs

were playing a crucial role

in getting the cannabis sold

in Christiania.

But during the Nordic Biker w*r,

the immigrant gangs realized

they could do it without the bikers,

they could do things on their own.

They could buy an entire crop

for themselves, from Morocco.

They could get it sold around the city.

When you have that kind of capacity,

you start looking at all the money

being made on Pusher Street and wonder,

"What do we have to do

to get a piece of this market?"

[Sandberg] All of the cannabis

was coming in from the countries

where the immigrant gangs are from.

Of course, these gangs

wanted to establish a

a presence in Christiania.

I mean, everybody wanted that.

[siren blaring]

A sh**ting tonight in Christiania.

Preliminary reports indicate one k*lled,

three wounded.

[Norton] At one point, various members

of the street gangs went to Christiania

to express their desire to have

a presence there with their own stalls.

And at the very least,

they wanted to supply stalls

and, in that way, secure for themselves

some kind of financial gain.

This was initially met with refusal,

which the gangs didn't take lying down.

They chose to respond rather harshly.

[quiet dramatic music playing]

The most violent

and extreme incident that occurred

in the wake of the rejection

was a sh**ting in the square

in front of the Community Kitchen.

Wild and indiscriminate g*nf*re broke out,

and resulted in a person

getting shot and k*lled.

We heard the shots from the youth center.

[rapid g*nf*re]

They were. running around the square,

sh**ting blindly at people.

[rapid g*nf*re]

It was scary that someone lost their life.

CARLO

CHRISTIANITE

Uh Just like that.

[person screaming]

[woman] Sit down, sit down,

sit down, sit down, sit down.

[echoing scream]

[reporter] Whether the motive is a rivalry

between drug dealers is uncertain.

I believe the sh**ting

was an act of revenge,

for something that had happened

the day before.

That whole incident

was kind of a launching pad

for the ramping up of violence.

Not just between the police

and drug dealers,

but also internally, among those of us

who liked to go to Pusher Street.

No suspect was identified

and the case remained unsolved,

but law enforcement

strongly suspected the g*ng scene

of being responsible

for what had happened.

[melancholic music playing]

Looking back at that period of time,

now with the benefit of hindsight

as well as the knowledge we have

of what happened to Pusher Street,

it's fair to say that the incidents

that occurred at that time

were an omen that portended the battle

over Pusher Street that later unfolded.

[tense music playing]

[people shouting]

[man] What are you doing? Hey!

It was an extremely violent time

in Christiania, in 2006 and 2007.

ALLAN BEIER

FORMER POLICE OFFICER

It was a period of extreme volatility.

- Whoa, whoa, Lie down! Hey! Hey!

- [people shouting]

[Norton] Around this time,

Christiania and its citizens

were subjected to pretty much

daily police raids, on Pusher Street.

There were officers raiding stalls,

sometimes even knocking over

and removing stalls,

and making a lot of arrests.

[people shouting]

[Bille] It was very violent.

KARL BILLE

ARTIST & MUSICIAN

In my opinion, senseless violence.

[man] What the hell are you doing?

[Norton] It was very clearly

an environment under intense strain.

I was the site commander,

and I became the figurehead.

They came at me with all they had.

[people shouting]

Bjarne Christensen was a notorious

on-site commander with the police.

He was loved by many of his officers,

but absolutely reviled on Pusher Street.

There was tension

every time he set foot in Christiania.

One time, a few of us, like all us young

people, decided to band together out there

because Bjarne had been, um, a little

too rough over the last several months.

NIKOLAJ

FORMER GOFER

Someone got the idea

to throw a bucket of sh*t on him.

[ethereal music playing]

So the plan was to, um,

we left out a bucket to be used

by everyone and anyone.

And we encouraged people to contribute.

The day came

where Bjarne and his boys arrived.

[dramatic music playing]

[Christensen] We were out there on patrol.

I'm walking around

with a number of colleagues.

There are a lot of people.

[Nikolaj] We seize our chance.

And then things move fast.

[people chattering]

I had this bucket of sh*t

poured all over me.

It got dead quiet.

[ominous music playing]

They're waiting

for the old man to lose it.

Something is happening.

[dramatic music playing]

Uh, then my buddy yells

[man] Bjarne, you smell like sh*t!

[snickering]

JØRN BALTHER – DOCUMENTARY

FILMMAKER & CHRISTIANITE

He stood there with sh*t dripping off him,

trying to keep a straight face.

[Christensen] I was boiling inside,

but stayed poised.

I wiped it off my visor

and continued patrol.

TONNY KLUCK

FORMER DRUG DEALER

He wiped it off and put it back on.

It really, really reeked.

[people shouting]

[Nikolaj] He took it well.

I'll give him that.

He kept his pride.

We thought he'd sic the boys on us.

But he didn't.

All the Christianites were standing

there, waiting for me to lose my temper.

Looking back, I definitely think

we won that little battle.

We didn't take the bait.

And I kept my cool.

Old dude's tough.

In all honesty, I don't think I would've

handled it the way Bjarne did.

[crowd chanting]

You smell a bit like sh*t!

You smell a bit like sh*t!

You smell a bit like sh*t!

You smell a bit like sh*t!

[Christensen] Eventually we leave

and go to the police station,

to get ourselves cleaned up.

When we pulled in,

it was completely quiet.

Then one of my colleagues says,

"It's true, Bjarne,

you do smell a bit like sh*t."

Then everyone starts laughing.

That gave me my last nickname.

Since then, we called him sh*t Bjarne.

[Nikolaj] It became his trademark.

[Christensen] I heard that all the time.

I took the whole thing like,

"Okay, the people respect you a little.

They might like you

since they pulled that stunt."

[moody dramatic music playing]

[Norton] In the latter half of the 2000s,

the police had been at it for a while

with daily raids

and their zero tolerance policy.

The authorities started realizing

that it wasn't having an effect,

and none of the underlying problems

were improving.

So it was time to turn to other tools,

other tactics, in order to fully realize

the government's so-called

"normalization" process.

And that's when the buildings really

became an important area of interest.

[Christensen] Our operations

grew significantly.

We started on Pusher Street,

but Christiania as a whole

needed to be normalized.

That meant demolishing

illegally constructed buildings.

[dramatic music playing]

The most prominent of them

was Infohuset.

That was where most of the dealers

and the other stall owners lived.

Members of the biker gangs

also lived there,

and as residents of Christiania,

they were allowed to sell cannabis.

[Norton] Infohuset is a property

in Christiania,

located in the area called Prærien.

It is a relatively large open area

facing Bådsmandsstræde

and Prinsessegade.

It's an illegally constructed property.

And during this time period,

it is believed by police

to house some of the heaviest players

dealing on Pusher Street.

[contemplative music playing]

Infohuset is life in the lap of luxury.

The few times I've been in there,

they are like luxury apartments.

Gold taps, drop-in tubs,

and that kind of stuff.

It's just a regular brick house.

[Christensen] It is very well know to us,

to everyone really,

that drug dealers and various members

of Hells Angels live there.

We all know that.

They don't contribute anything to society.

They're living a life of luxury.

A lot of them were on welfare.

And there was piles of cash lying around.

That builds resentment.

Bjarne is ridiculous.

No biker has ever lived at Infohuset.

That's a police fabrication.

Its total bullshit.

[Christensen] That house had to go.

An arrangement was made,

with the demolition team

that I would get to be the first person

to swing the wrecking ball.

[Larsen] The police are well aware

that no one in Christiania

is interested in their buildings

being demolished.

The atmosphere is intense and resentful.

Their plan is to start out gently.

[ominous music playing]

[Christensen] On the east edge

of Christiania there was a building

called The Cigar Box.

The Cigar Box was an ill*gal building

that had caught fire.

It burned down, and there were

just a few charred beams left.

OLE LYKKE

CHRISTIANITE

The Cigar Box was mostly

burned down at that point

and definitely not worth very much.

[Christensen] We decided to start

by clearing out The Cigar Box.

There was nothing to object to.

Clearing out that place

wouldn't be a problem.

[Norton] The Cigar Box

would become a turning point

in the police's fight

against Pusher Street,

the drug dealers, and the Christianites.

The Palaces and Properties Agency

was the institution

that designated a building

for demolition and removal.

The Cigar Box was a property from which

Christianites had evicted residents.

[tense music playing]

That day, the police thought

they were headed out

on just another routine operation.

[Balther] We didn't want

The Cigar Box removed.

You got the impression

that it really wasn't about the building.

No, it was about asserting power

over Christiania.

[Lykke] The early stages of demolition

were seen by the Christianite community

as the starting point

for the abolition of Christiania.

It was like the beginning of the end.

[Christensen] We went in

early in the morning.

There weren't that many of us.

Technical Services cut up the beams

and drove them away.

It was going well at first,

until people started showing up.

[people chanting]

Police control breeds the violence!

More and more came.

Ein, zwei, drei! Nazipolizei!

That created an agitated

and hostile atmosphere,

so we started patrolling.

Police control breeds the violence!

Then the rocks started flying.

The police pressed toward Pusher Street.

[chuckles] And let me tell ya,

that was when the sh*t really hit the fan.

- [people shouting]

- [man 1] What the f*ck are you doing?

[man 2] Stop it!

[man 3] You f*cking assholes!

- [people shouting]

- [officer] Calm down!

I mean the pepper spray was flowing

and people were in tears.

[tense music playing]

People got thrown to the ground,

got lacerations and started bleeding.

[people shouting]

It was a truly unnecessary

and ugly situation.

Wakey-wakey, on your feet. Hello?

It was violent, very violent.

It just kept going.

A few people from Christiania,

myself included,

maybe 20 or 30 of us,

we got all the trash containers together.

We got them from alleyways

and the streets.

We dumped them all on Torvegade

and we set it all on fire.

[siren blaring]

It took it from there.

Me and a buddy were riding around

with a megaphone.

More and more people joined in.

Word traveled fast around town.

[Lykke] This was right after

Ungdomshuset was shut down.

A lot of people were furious

with the police

and were more than ready to fight them.

[Nikolaj] I had heard

there were people in Jutland

who saw it on TV

and came to Christiania to help.

That escalated

into full-blown fighting in streets.

[siren blaring]

Fires, burned-out cars,

and all that kind of stuff.

Molotov c*ck

and lots of tear gas.

[Beier] Christiania was completely

blanketed in gas.

They threw so much tear gas.

This created problems for my colleagues,

and we needed to make space

in order to operate.

[expl*si*n]

[Nikolaj] We wore gas masks.

I mean, we just pick up the gas canisters

and throw them right back at the police.

[chuckles] The tear gas didn't work on us.

[Beier] It was a wild, intense experience.

It was dark and all I could see

was Christianites in dark clothing,

running left and right, all over the

place, hiding behind sheds, behind bushes.

We were under attack

and I couldn't see anything

At one point I issued an order

to my tear gas gunner.

I told him, "This is too dangerous.

If you see someone and they

are holding a rock in their hand,

you have permission to just sh**t them

with the gas canister.

That's an order."

[man] The cops are in the cars.

The cars are on fire.

At night, the police

start gaining the upper hand,

and they push the rioters away from

Christianshavn and into Christiania.

[Nikolaj] We're starting to lose ground.

The police are closing in.

They're moving, one step at a time,

slowly down Prinsessegade

until they manage to push us back

so far that we have to retreat.

It's, uh, five six AM.

Me and three others, uh,

we run down Pusher Street

down to Nemoland.

All of Nemoland is full of cops.

With shields.

They're all in battle formation.

They start beating

against their shields, going,

"Dom, dom, dom, dom."

They start marching,

and then they call out, "Hit them!"

I was scared shitless.

[ominous music playing]

[Christensen] The crowd

was starting to grow.

The Christianites and anarchists knew

when they cast the first stone

that once they did A, B would follow.

[Nikolaj] There aren't any places

to run. They came from

every entrance from everywhere,

with over 300 men.

The only option I have

is to run to Stjerneskibet,

which they have surrounded too.

I climbed out a window.

We laid on the roof for five hours,

until the danger had passed.

[dog barking]

I can't believe no one saw us,

but no officer would have thought

we'd be dumb enough to hide on the roof.

[contemplative music playing]

[Norton] With the police's

violent conduct in Christiania

and other parts of the city,

public opposition starts brewing

against beating protesters

and activists with batons.

As footage

from those operations circulate,

more and more people

voice discomfort and outrage.

This spurs considerations that it might

be time to turn down the heat a little,

as people start questioning whether

such force is necessary or proportional.

[Beier] Our extreme zero-tolerance

approach only resulted

in increasing confrontation.

There were a lot of fights

that could have been avoided.

It's the job of the police to de-escalate

and we should have prioritized dialogue

to prevent unnecessary clashes.

We were supposed to go high,

when everyone else goes low.

We didn't do that.

We went along with their dirty fights.

That's what caused the escalations.

We engaged in show-of-force tactics,

pushing into crowds

rather than opening communication.

Unit pride and quick tactical wins

was all that mattered.

There were so many fights that could

have been prevented if we,

as police officers,

had tried to talk things down.

But we didn't, not at all.

[dog barking]

When I look back

at my own behavior during that time

and how confrontational I was,

I can reflect and understand very clearly

that it wasn't very professional.

I didn't properly exercise

my duty-bound authority.

I wasn't trained well enough

to know how to deal with all of that.

I just had to rely on my own skills

to somehow resolve it.

We have our armor until it wears out,

and then we fall back on our humanity.

[siren blaring]

To think that tearing down

The Cigar Box, of all places,

had that kind of effect, I mean

That was intense.

[man] What's going on?

Hey, man!

[Norton] If you look back

at that three-year period

where Bjarne Christensen

had daily patrols in Christiania,

he became, to the people of Pusher Street,

the very face

of that confrontational style of policing.

Local sentiment connected those methods

to Bjarne Christensen himself.

[people shouting]

The authorities started to consider

whether the police strategy

was really what was best for the area,

and to weigh the idea

that some important things

might need to change moving forward.

In 2008, a shift happens

to the police effort in Christiania.

The ideas about how to handle

and go about it.

There was a realization that the rigid

and ruthless zero-tolerance policy

couldn't stand alone

in the way that it had.

The police strategy changes,

and with that the daily confrontations

with the citizenry come to an end.

The police start to practice

a more classic form of investigation,

targeting the kingpins directly

as opposed to the population at large.

[contemplative music playing]

[Christensen] After clearing The Cigar Box

people in the various government agencies

and ministries got cold feet

about the operation.

Once they saw the reaction and fallout

from clearing that one dilapidated site,

they left it alone.

They gave in to mob pressure,

that's how I see it.

They capitulated.

They weren't willing to take on the fight

that it would have become.

To do our job properly, we would have

continued to use a lot of resources,

fought hard, and fought a lot.

We were told,

"This is the last time. Make it count."

What happened? It fizzled out.

Then you're disappointed and sad.

You go, "Six years wasted."

We accomplished nothing.

[Beier] I had been okay with the job

I had been doing in Christiania

and doing what needed to be done.

But then I became a part

of the realization

that zero tolerance and ruthlessness

were not the way to go.

We all believed that we'd stick it out

till the bitter end.

It just didn't happen.

So I said to myself,

"If they ask you to do it again,

the answer is no."

- Get outta here!

- That's right, take your crap with you.

[Larsen] Even though Bjarne Christensen

and the zero-tolerance approach were out,

there was still a police presence

in Christiania.

But now they practiced much

less confrontational methods.

JESPER VESTERGAARD LARSEN

JOURNALIS

For example,

they don't arrest cannabis smokers.

Shortly after that, the weed market

grew back very quickly.

[upbeat music playing]

The stalls got a boost,

and people started to name them

and market them and build them

into real brands.

MATILDE

CHRISTIANITE

[Norton] The Christianites' acceptance

of cannabis sales

stemmed from the fact that cannabis

is an ingrained part of the spirit

of Christiania itself.

There was a bond

between the Christianites and the dealers.

A lot of the drug dealers

were Christianites during this period.

[Mathilde] One time I got a flier from

this dealer who had photographed himself,

partially masked,

and there was a QR code.

It really seemed like an advertisement you

might expect from a legitimate business.

I thought, "Wow, this has suddenly

become extremely commercialized."

[Kluck] People can relax

and be themselves.

That's a good reason to

bring better weed across the border.

Make sure customers

get a better selection,

better pot, better joints.

[Mathilde] Some stalls

were more popular than others.

Usually the stalls that had like Christmas

garlands and such were the busiest.

It felt like any other market.

There was an ordinary kind of calm to it.

[Kluck] We even had a few concerts

at that time. Free to attend.

Eat a hotdog,

listen to music, drink a beer

It was great.

A calmer Christiania

attracts an older crowd.

[contemplative music playing]

Back in the day, I traded pot

for hashish in Christiania.

THE WHOLESALER

Now a days, there's much higher quality

stuff. The product is a lot more refined.

So eventually,

I started my own cannabis cultivation

and sought out some old contacts,

from my previous operations.

From the Netherlands, actually.

I built it up to a relatively large site,

with, um

three or four thousand plants.

I delivered 12 to 13 kilograms

to Christiania once every four weeks.

I think I charged

35,000 per kilo.

[Norton] One of the key hypotheses

of law enforcement during this period

was that the Hells Angels play

a dominant role in Pusher Street.

The police said that they believed

the biker club controlled about 80%

of Pusher Street's market.

They wanted an investigation

to document what was going on.

POLICE

[Lykke] As Bjarne

and his police officers withdrew,

the cannabis market came roaring back.

It It returned

in a much different form.

This return was very clearly directed

and run by the Hells Angels.

Very clearly.

[intriguing music playing]

It becomes clear that the biker gangs

have a strong presence in the market.

Bandidos and the Hells Angels

had that market in the 2010s.

We went out there, we found the stalls

had all been packed up.

But there were still people there.

You know, those biker types.

And it became very to clear to us

when we spoke with them

that these guys

were definitely part of those gangs.

[siren blaring]

[ominous music playing]

Meanwhile, there was

a full on w*r going on

between the immigrant gangs

and the Hells Angels.

It was about immigrant gangs

trying to get into the cannabis market.

Hells Angels,

in particular, really fought back.

We ended up in a situation where

there was g*ng warfare in Copenhagen.

[siren blaring]

[dog barking]

[Sandberg] There was

a big g*ng w*r in the 2000s.

There's this sense that,

yeah, you're at w*r with each other,

but it's an ongoing evolution.

New kids come in

and want a piece of the action,

and you know, that has to be dealt with.

The question is always: is it better

to fight it or is there room for both?

There are several violent encounters that

pop up between criminals in Christiania.

[ominous music playing]

[Nikolaj] There's a lot of tension,

you can feel it.

My boss told me

not to go around the city.

And to you know avoid going to clubs,

because you might end up

in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A lot of these clashes are likely due

to immigrant biker groups

who are trying to get into the lucrative

cannabis market in Christiania.

[tense music playing]

[Beier] I've been following the situation

in Christiania closely for many years,

and the severity of violence has increased

exponentially as time has gone by.

[Lykke] Both Bandidos and Hell's Angels

established hard-hitting youth factions.

For Hells Angels

it was called AK-81.

If there was trouble,

a certain group would show up

like some kind of guard squad.

[Norton] The bikers realized

they might be facing a new enemy

that they hadn't really seen coming.

In short, they were taken by surprise.

And they thought the situation called

for new recruits.

But they also saw that they might

have trouble attracting young people.

At this point in the 2000s,

they were hanging on to old ideals

with long hair and motorcycles.

Their image felt increasingly out of step

with younger generations,

which made it difficult

to bring in new blood.

One of the ways they tried to get around

this was by establishing a support group

for young people who were curious.

Around this time, some of the key

members of Hells Angels,

namely Jørn "Jønke" Nielsen

and Brian Sandberg,

they ramped up the new group

and renamed it AK-81.

This was a letter and number code

that meant "Always Ready Hells Angels."

Jønke said AK-81

was just "a group of strapping lads."

It was, "a crew of eager young men."

And you have to admit,

he was right about that.

In practice, they functioned

exactly as the description implied.

These people were recruited

as a type of goon squad

in the conflict with the street gangs.

What's remarkable

is the way the use of firearms

comes so prominently into the picture.

[tense music continues]

There's shootings and deaths.

And what became

very clear to us, as police,

was this intense battle

over the ill*gal cannabis market.

The uptick in violence made it clear how

ruthlessly that market will be defended.

The cannabis market held such value

and was such a big business

that these biker groups were ready

to fight and k*ll each other over it.

[ominous music playing]

[g*n c*ck and rapid g*nf*re]

In 2009, there was an outright

assassination outside Grå Hal.

There was an immigrant guy,

who was sitting in a car.

And someone associated with AK-81

came and shot him.

[rapid g*nf*re]

[dramatic music playing]

The g*ng w*r came very close

to Christiania as well.

[Norton] Although the police

didn't have a strong visible presence

in Christiania at this time,

they still had their eyes

on Pusher Street.

[tense music playing]

[Mathilde] The police were still present

in Christiania

and I would encounter them

in my everyday life.

There certainly weren't those

big conflicts like I had seen before,

but I would still see arrests being made.

[Nikolaj] You don't talk to police.

You don't say anything.

When you're in custody, you go silent.

You don't offer a defense.

You keep quiet.

Whatever you say, they can build a case.

So just keep your mouth shut.

[Norton] As the investigation

against Pusher Street intensified,

the police set their focus

on finding out who the kingpins were.

They cast a wider net and started

looking at the supply chain

going into Christiania.

This raised more questions about

how the street trade actually operated

and who was connected to whom.

The inquiry's scope widened conceptually,

from the handful of street sellers,

to the broader picture

of how product and people moved

throughout the market.

In 2012, police start a new investigation

of Pusher Street

and establish a new unit.

Its formation marks a shift

towards a more concentrated focus.

The new unit

is named Task Force Pusher Street,

and its purpose is exclusively targeted

at Pusher Street.

[Beier] Task Force Pusher Street was

created to conduct basic investigations

with surveillance, document investigation,

interviews, wiretaps.

All the classic investigative tools

are at their disposal.

The unit coordinated those methods

to pursue leads.

[contemplative music playing]

[Lykke] The police came back

with a new operation.

They mostly did surveillance,

but they also had undercover cops

buying cannabis from dealers

to collect material

for their investigation.

[Larsen] After the police stop

the confrontational approach

to challenges on Pusher Street,

some of the dealers start to feel

like they're free again.

But they're dead wrong.

[dramatic music playing]

MARCH 13, 2014

Police went out in force, hitting 150

addresses across the country.

[Norton] In March 2014,

Task Force Pusher Street

launched the single

largest operation in the group's history,

called Operation Nordlys.

More than 80 people were arrested

and the scale of this operation signaled

how concentrated

the investigation had become.

The overall purpose of the operation

was to demonstrate

that police would strike,

specifically against the Hells Angels.

Their aim was prove that the biker group

had been playing a controlling role

in Pusher Street.

Pusher Street in Christiania

was combed through

in the largest-ever police

operation targeting cannabis sales.

In March 2014,

police conducted Operation Nordlys.

They arrested around 80 people

associated with the cannabis market.

[man] The police found

hundreds of kilograms of cannabis,

cash, vehicles and weapons.

[dog barking]

[Beier] I wasn't part of Operation

Nordlys, but I'm familiar with it.

The investigation went specifically

after the bagmen

who had their origins in the biker groups,

and the pushers

working the stalls in Christiania.

The operation targeted both the

supply-side players tied to the bikers

and the street-level dealers.

[man] The many detainees

have been or are being arraigned.

Among them are five members

of the Hells Angels,

many of them top men.

[Mathilde] I really only remember

that Operation Nordlys was huge.

I was just, at home,

and then I got a call from my in-laws

saying that there had

been this massive raid.

They came at five AM. They rammed

the door, and cops flooded in.

[Mathilde] I talked to several of my

girlfriends whose fathers were arrested.

They built a big case

with agents in plain clothes

who went around filming.

[Mathilde] There were cameras in places

that no one knew about:

up on the rooftops and even in apartments.

They had been placed around town

in secret, to document the drug dealing.

[Kluck] Hidden cameras.

They got a whole lot of footage.

They built a case on it.

[interviewer] Was there footage of you?

Yeah, there was.

I don't remember how much, but a lot.

[intriguing music playing]

When they led me out to the car,

I saw them in all the apartments.

So I knew it was a big case.

[Bille] All of the old dealers,

they just disappear.

The guys who make sure the people

behave themselves are gone.

The entire infrastructure is gone.

It's a tragedy. A tragedy.

ON THE NEXT EPISODE

"Allan, two of your colleagues

have been shot in Christiania."

[g*n c*ck]

[g*nf*re]

An officer is in critical condition

after being shot in the head

while on patrol in Christiania.

Is he dead or alive?

[Lykke] The place is crawling

with armed police.

They are not to be trifled with.

[officer] Show me your hands!

The tension grew so fast, like overnight.

[Bille] Everything just became so brutal.

It got very rough.

[shouting]

[Lykke] A series of violent events.

- [people shouting]

- [dramatic music playing]

It was an uncomfortable place.

THE HELLS ANGELS MC AND

BANDIDOS MC WERE PRESENTED

WITH AND OFFERED TO COMMEN

ON THE ALLEGATIONS,

BUT HAD NOT DONE SO

AT THE TIME OF PUBLICATION.

[tense dramatic music playing]