X-Team

X-Team was founded in Denmark in 1997 following the Nordic Biker War. The gang had approximately twenty-five chapters and 350 members in the country at peak strength circa 2002^[10] but the X-Team in Denmark was eventually disbanded after the Bandidos lost control of the gang's members. The Bandidos later former another youth branch called Mexican Team Work.^[11]

An X-Team member was arrested on a motorway near Hillerød and found to be in possession of two-and-a-half kilograms of amphetamine. Police stopped the man after observing him being handed the amphetamine by another man, who in turn had obtained the drugs from a Dutchman. Police later found sixteen kilograms of cocaine being stored by the Dutchman at a derelict pub in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. A total of five people were taken into custody in October 2000 in connection with the drug ring.^[12]

X-Team became involved in a conflict with an immigrant gang in Ishøj in December 2000. A group of between ten and thirty immigrants shot at five X-Team members at an inn on 25 April 2001. On 13 June 2001, three of those who had been shot at were part of a group of five who were arrested in possession of firearms, including a shotgun and a hunting rifle, and a bag of ammunition.^[13]

Several members provided logistical support to the killers of Claus Bork Hansen, a former Bandidos member who was shot dead in Vanløse, Copenhagen on 21 March 2001 after being expelled from the club amid an internal dispute.^[14]

In May 2001, two members were convicted in Taastrup of extortion, theft, trafficking in cocaine and amphetamine, and unlawful possession of machine guns and assault rifles.^[15]

X-Team members Mads Thorsen and Ken Olsen were each sentenced to a year in prison after being convicted of violence, extortion, threats and drug trafficking in Vordingborg in July 2001. The crimes related to threats and violence carried out against a former X-Team member and his girlfriend, who owed Olsen and Thorsen money for drugs which had been given to them for resale. The man was beaten at an apartment in Stege, and his girlfriend attempted suicide due to the pressure put on her by the pair.^[16]

X-Team members Martin Ilievski and Igor Stojanovski shot and wounded two men in the head with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol following a dispute at a party in Hvidovre on 9 December 2001.^[17] Ilievski and Stojanovski then robbed a Danske Bank branch in Skovlunde of kr990,000 in January 2002. The pair were convicted of attempted murder and armed robbery, and were each sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment at the Østre Landsret (High Court of Eastern Denmark) in October 2002. An accomplice in the robbery, Asan Rusti, was sentenced to three years' for driving the perpetrators' getaway car, while a fourth man, Casper Wiinblad, was sentenced to one-and-a-half years' for handling the firearm used in the shootings.^[18]

A gang war involving the X-Team and the Red & White Crew – the Hells Angels' equivalent of the X-Team – in Næstved broke out on 6 January 2002 when shots were fired in an apparent feud over a young woman. Following a number of armed clashes, a villa belonging to Red & White Crew member Brian Lielbardis was targeted in an arson attack on 5 September 2002. Allan Lilsby, who was seen by a witness with two others near the burning villa, was arrested close to the scene. His two suspected accomplices were not apprehended.^[19]

Seven members were prosecuted in Næstved in June 2002 for extensive drug trafficking in east Zealand.^[20]

Two X-Team members were arrested on suspicion of trafficking in a large quantity of drugs on 24 September 2002 after a police raid on the gang's premises in Bagsværd uncovered hashish.^[21]

Three members of the gang were arrested after a man was beaten, stabbed twice in the leg, and robbed of his mobile phone and moped on 14 June 2003 in Horsens.^[22]

X-Team has approximately sixty-five members in Finland.^[23]

Members of the Bandidos' and X-Team's Espoo chapter were among twenty-one people charged with importing and distributing amphetamine in January 2008.^[24]

The X-Team branch in Oulu – established in the spring of 2013 – has been investigated for crimes of violence and extortion. Police suspect the crimes are related to debt collection.^[23]

X-Team member Antti Niilo Raatikainen, along with a Bandidos member and a club hangaround, were convicted in October 2016 of violently extorting money from a man in Tampere in the spring of 2014.^[25]

In March 2017, four members of the X-Team and two members of the Bandidos in Tampere – including the chapter president – were prosecuted for a number of crimes relating to fraud, embezzlement and forgery which took place between 2013 and 2014.^[26]

There are twenty-one X-Team chapters in Germany.^[27]

The X-Team chapter in Aachen was among six branches of Bandidos and its support clubs banned by the ministry of SPD MP Ralf Jäger on 26 April 2012. Over six-hundred police officers were involved in subsequent raids on the chapters' headquarters and members' residences.^[28]

On 28 April 2012, an X-Team member used his car to force a member of the Gremium Motorcycle Club off the road near Westerkappeln. The Gremium member fell from his motorcycle and suffered bruises and abrasions.^[29]

A nationwide ban on wearing the emblems of X-Team, as well as the Bandidos and seven other groups, in public came into effect on 16 March 2017.^[30]