LISBON, Portugal — Portugal’s attorney general’s office says authorities have charged 89 Hells Angels bikers with crimes including attempted murder, grievous bodily harm, extortion and drug trafficking.
In a statement Thursday, it said the accused were armed with knives and bats when bursting into a restaurant near Lisbon last year and tried to kill four people.
The incident sparked a major police investigation, with 400 detectives deployed across the country in a crackdown on the Hells Angels motorcycle club.
Of the 89, 37 are in pre-trial detention, five are at home under electronic surveillance and two are detained in Germany awaiting extradition to Portugal, the prosecutors said.
The authorities said at the time the attacks were part of a turf war for control of illicit guns and drug trade.
The Hells Angels club is relatively new in Portugal. Elsewhere in Europe, prosecutors in the Britain, Germany and the Netherlands have cracked down on its activities in recent times.