The Biker Gang Story

The basic story?

Someone within the German intelligence system (no one says it's a political figure....so it might be an intelligence officer)....went to ZDF (Public TV, channel Two) out of Germany and said the following:  folks within the Turkish AKP Party (Erdogan's group) are funding and arming gang members in Germany.  Money is moving into Germany....to pay for an escalation of criminal activities.

The chief group?  It's suggested that the Osmanen Germania group....typically a biker gang with some criminal elements....are getting the money and funding weapons.  The use of the weapons?  This is an odd part of the story....to go after Turkish critics of Erdogan in Germany. 

Reliability?  Unknown.  The German intelligence folks are not saying anything, and Merkel has yet to comment on the report. 

The news folks?  They have chatted with some experts who don't seem to doubt the story although you get the opinion from them that this opens up a lot of questions that ought to be on the desk of the Interior Minister and the coalition government.

First, is the report true?  Maybe there's some private AKP Party people involved, and it's not a massive Turkish conspiracy.

Second, how much funding are we talking about?  100,000 Euro?  Half-a-million Euro?  A million Euro?  If this were a small amount....it won't buy much of anything on the open market.  Course, if you just had a dozen weapons that were involved....that's a problem anyway.

Third, is it only this biker gang?  The group?  Cops noted their existence as starting roughly two years ago.  Prior to that?  Non-existent.  It's a rather odd thing.  Last year, cops noted that twenty of the 'club' organizations existed.  It was like a large membership drive.  Turks wanted to be part of the club.

The gang says....you can believe it or doubt it.....they have roughly 3,500 members at this point.  Maybe it's true....maybe it's half that number.

Germany alone?  No....they claim clubs in Austria, Switzerland, and Sweden now.

A year ago, the national club held a meeting here in Hessen....the first type where the top leadership all met in one building. 

A couple of months ago, the German authorities started to question what the chief targets of the group were about....against the PKK crowd?  Against anti-Erdogan folks?

My guess is that they looked at finances, and came to some funding issues....where they know weapons were purchased.

So this leads you to the fourth and last topic....if it did lead back to the Erdogan political party....then what?  What exactly would happen....if anything? 

In a way, by subsidizing the group....they are simply increasing the biker gang up to the level of the Serbian mafia, the Russian mafia, the Romanian mafia, etc.  The German cops already had a major problem and this just makes it worse.