The Bandidos Motorcycle Club is classified as a motorcycle gang by law enforcement and intelligence agencies in numerous countries. While the club has denied being a criminal organization, Bandidos members have been convicted of partaking in criminal enterprises including theft, extortion, prostitution, drug trafficking and murder in various host nations.
The Bandidos are considered an outlaw motorcycle gang by the Australian Federal Police. The Bandidos are designated a criminal motorcycle gang by Belgium's Federal Police.
At the request of Dutch authorities, Belgian police searched a property in Borgloon in May as part of an operation against the Bandidos that also included raids carried out in the Netherlands and Germany. Bandidos members were among a number of people arrested in Limburg on 28 September as part of an investigation into a large-scale drug trafficking ring, which began after a shipment of almost 3, kilograms of cocaine was discovered at the Port of Antwerp in late Dozens of police raids led to the seizure of millions of euros in cash, gold and luxury cars.
An investigation carried out by a joint task force consisting of agents from the Belgian Federal Police and the Spanish National Police Corps resulted in a total of twenty-six raids being carried out in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain on 20 October in relation to a shipment of 11, kilograms of cocaine hidden in a consignment of scrap metal from South America to Antwerp , which was seized upon arrival at the port.
Thirteen people were arrested in Belgium, and the president of the Bandidos in Spain β a Belgian national β was apprehended in Marbella on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and belonging to a criminal organization after he was identified by police as the organizer of the shipment.
