The National Court has sentenced 32 defendants to sentences of up to two years in prison for their links to the Los Angeles del Infierno biker group for criminal activities carried out in Palma de Mallorca between 2009 and 2013, while it has acquitted another 13, including group leader, Frank Hanebuth. The Chamber rules out the crime of criminal organization because it has not been proven that the accused formed a “criminal enterprise”.

The acquittal of the crime of belonging to a criminal organization extends to all the accused, including those who had acknowledged this crime at the beginning of the oral hearing by showing their agreement with the accusation of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.. Of the 45 accused (the accusation was withdrawn for one), 35 agreed and 9 disagreed with the Prosecutor's accusation..

The sentence of the Fourth Section of the Criminal Chamber, of 500 pages, applies to all the accused the mitigation of undue delays, in its simple form. Also the late recognition of the facts to those who agreed before the trial, so their prison sentences are replaced by fines, as requested by the Public Ministry..

This is the case of one of Hanebuth's alleged lieutenants, Khalil Youssafi, whom the Chamber sentences to 9 years and 9 months in prison, a sentence that, like other defendants who have acknowledged the facts, is replaced by a fine..

On the contrary, his brother Abdelghani Youssafi, who did not comply, was sentenced to two years in prison for a crime of prostitution, although he has been acquitted of belonging to a criminal organization, threats, coercion, concealment, illegal detention, money laundering , illicit possession of weapons and failure to prosecute crimes. As for the person considered to be Hanebuth's right-hand man, Paul Engelke, the Court sentences him to one year and 6 months in prison for crimes of threats and cover-up..

Hanebuth and the criminal enterprise

The president of the Hells Angels of Hannover and head of this “chapter” or group in Mallorca, Frank Hanebuth, has also been acquitted of all the crimes of which he was accused, considering that there is no evidence that he intimidated anyone or that he has permanently settled in Spain with the intention of creating a chapter on the Balearic island of the HAMC organization that he himself would direct and lead “as a base for the continuation of the alleged criminal activities for which he and the HAMC organization are being subjected.” research in Germany.

The court, of the Fourth Section, chaired by Judge Teresa Palacios and with a presentation by Judge Juan Francisco Martel, considers that it has not been possible to prove that the accused are part of a criminal enterprise..

It states that “they are people settled on the island of Mallorca (Balearic Islands), many of them related to the international motorcycle club called 'Hells Angels Motor Club' (HAMC) or 'Ángeles del Infierno Motor Club' in its Spanish version, without it being known that the people linked to this association (of which there are about twenty established in Spain) are integrated into a hierarchical criminal structure, with pretensions of permanence and in which each of its members adopts a specific role, as a criminal enterprise dedicated to obtaining benefits to be deposited in a common fund and with them meet the needs of said structure and prolong the alleged criminal activities.”.

Nor has it been proven, says the ruling, that 'Hells Angels' is a perfectly structured organization that carries out internal control of its members in a coercive or violent manner, with a strong hierarchical character and iron discipline, whose members due to this circumstance are not who are involved in crimes related to prostitution, drug trafficking, illicit possession of weapons, threats and coercion, concealment of crimes and money laundering from criminal conduct.

All of this, he adds, “without prejudice to the fact that any of its members are or have been involved in police and judicial investigations for the alleged commission of acts criminally reprehensible to them, not committed under the protection of that lawful and registered association.”.

Undue delays

The Chamber has applied to all those convicted the mitigation of undue delays in its simple form, interested by the Public Prosecutor's Office, and has assessed that the case presented the complexity derived from the nature of the actions investigated, the number of people involved, the variety of the legal relationships that linked them and the plurality of places where the events occurred, which required, according to the magistrates, not only the practice of many procedures, but also the provision of multiple documentation.

For the Court, the processing was always maintained at speed and there was never any paralysis, since various procedures were carried out aimed at the most complete clarification of what happened and aimed at providing the necessary elements for a correct prosecution, which determines that it has not been unnecessarily harmed by unjustified stoppages or by the practice of proceedings that should have been considered useless.

However, the court adds in the ruling that the long period of carrying out the procedural acts does allow the time elapsed to be considered undue for the purposes of assessing the circumstance of mitigation of the criminal responsibilities involved, because it is evident that from the first arrests of the accused, in July 2013, until the decree of accusation was issued, in April 2022, almost nine years have passed.

The Chamber also applies the mitigating circumstance of late recognition of the facts to 35 of the accused and that for the court “was important and essential to proceed with the most rapid and effective resolution of the case as it affected them”, which is why it deserves a minor criminal charge.

Regarding the civil guard and the two local police officers who were tried, the court condemned the former for the crime of violation of secrets to a fine and absolved him of bribery and the duty to prosecute crimes.. In relation to the local police officers, one of them is acquitted of belonging to a criminal organization and bribery, while the other agent is sentenced to disqualification from employment or public office for six months for the crime of omission of the duty to prosecute crimes..

The Mallorca branch

It should be remembered that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office presented its indictment in January 2019, targeting almost fifty individuals and three other legal entities for 16 charges that resulted in a combined balance of 298 and a half years in prison..

The indictment issued at the time by the investigating judge Eloy Velasco placed Hanebuth at the head of the organization and added that he would have had the help of Khalil Yousafi and his brother Abdelghani who would have facilitated his landing in Mallorca along with another ” group of sidekicks”.

The prosecutor maintained that the members of the club were involved in serious crimes that resulted in accusations of criminal organization, money laundering, drug trafficking, illegal detention, illegal possession of weapons, prostitution, threats, coercion, extortion, falsification of documents, cover-up , omission of the duty to prosecute crimes, violation of secrets and bribery.