A total of eight foreign biker gangs are now present in the country, despite government measures taken to prevent the spread of gang-related crime.

Justice Minister Søren Pape Poulsen announced a new set of measures against biker gang activity – which is closely related to much of Denmark’s organised crime – last month, reports tabloid newspaper Ekstra Bladet.

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The new anti-gang measures, passed in parliament with support from the Social Democrats and Danish People’s Party, were announce on March 24th – just four days before the German group announced it had opened a branch in Denmark.

Guerilla Nation opened in 2015 and has already been linked to a number of violent and drug-related crimes and killings, reports Ekstra Bladet.

The police’s National Investigation Centre (Nationalt Efterforskningscenter, NEC) is closely following the group’s activity since arriving in Denmark, police inspector Michael Kjeldgaard told the newspaper.

“We are aware that the group has drawn attention to itself on social media… It is a very early stage, so it is difficult to say very much. But we have followed them for a while and can see that known individuals from other groups are appearing around the group. For us it is new jerseys on old acquaintances,” he said.

The arrival of the group on a Danish biker gang scene that already includes Hells Angels and Bandidos amongst others could result in an increase in conflicts, Kjeldgaard added.

Poulsen told Ekstra Bladet that he did not welcome the new group’s presence in Denmark.

“They must not be reading the Danish media. The new anti-biker gang measures will show them that we do not care for them and we will do all we can to chase them out (of Denmark) again. Denmark is a very bad place for biker gangs, not least in the future, when we can use the new rules against them,” he said.

New measures introduced by the government’s ‘anti-biker package’ include a minimum of two years’ imprisonment for possession of weapons and harsher punishments for using firearms in public.

“What we can do with these types is give them harsh prison sentences, and if they are foreign, we have deportation laws. I am of the opinion that they should be met with an iron fist. Simply. And if they go to prison, that should be hard too,” Poulsen said to Ekstra Bladet.

The newspaper reported that it approached Guerilla Nation for comment without success.