Hell's Angels boss accused of ruling Mallorca underworld could walk free
One of Europe's most notorious Hell’s Angels bikers has told a judge he was just a regular holidaymaker in Mallorca as a long-awaited trial began into his alleged drug and prostitution ring on the Spanish tourist island.
Frank Hanebuth, a German former boxer who stands at 6ft 5in, refused the invitation to sit as he went on trial in Madrid’s National Court, predicting that his testimony would not take long.
The 58-year-old could be seen consulting notes scrawled on the palm of his left hand as he was asked to provide dates of his visits to Mallorca.
Prosecutors are asking for 13 years in jail for Hanebuth, but an early plea deal may see a man accused of terrorising the island destination avoid jail.
Hanebuth was first arrested in 2013 after a German national had reported being targeted by the Palma Beach Hell’s Angels gang in a business dispute that became violent.
Spanish police claim to have uncovered a network of brothels, drug trafficking and protection rackets in nightlife hotspots on Mallorca, with biker gang members brought to the island from around Europe.
Hanebuth himself is accused of membership in a criminal organisation, money laundering, making threats and illegal possession of firearms.
Prostitution, semi-legal in Spain, was one of the chapter's "main sources of income", prosecutors claim, saying the gang coerced women into working at brothels and forced them to have surgery to make them more "productive".
"Those women were the property of the organisation and had to comply with its rules or face various sorts of sanctions," the prosecution argues.
Hanebuth spent two years in custody in Spain before being released in 2015. On his return to his home city of Hanover, he was welcomed like a head of state back from exile, touring the streets in a white limousine as well-wishers flocked to greet him.
Similarly, in 2017 when he married Sarah, six years his junior, huge crowds formed around the protestant church in Bissendorf, requiring a police operation to manage the throng.
Hanebuth made his name in the 1990s as the leader of the Bones motorcycle club, associating with Kurdish and Albanian gangs who controlled Hanover’s Steintor red light district.
Hanebuth merged the Bones with the Hell’s Angels in 1999 and strengthened his economic interests in Hanover, where he told the court in Madrid that he continues to run businesses involved in “security and gastronomy”.
German police special forces arrested him in a raid on his home in 2012 on a manslaughter charge that was later dropped, but, according to Spanish investigators, Hanebuth had now turned his attention to new business opportunities in Mallorca.
The trial of Hanebuth’s Mallorca Hell’s Angels this week came close to descending into an embarrassing farce after a majority of the 47 accused struck plea bargains that will see them avoid lengthy jail sentences in favour of fines.
Khalil Youssafi, accused of being one of the leaders of the gang, faced 38 years in prison for crimes including kidnapping, making threats and drug trafficking, but will avoid prison altogether by paying a fine of 36,000 euros (£32,000).
The amount of time elapsed since the arrests means sentences demanded by prosecutors for the remaining accused will likely be reduced, while defence lawyers point to the absence from the trial of many witnesses, and argue that the phone tapping ordered by a Mallorca court was illegal.
