Google translated from German
Were you too bad for the Hells Angels? What was the silliest rule in the MC? Are you all tough guys or are you just pretending to be?
Jan Sander was active under the scene name Miami Gianni for a news service and the police undercover at various rocker clubs . At least that’s what he says. Before that he ran a brothel in Hamburg.
In 2012 he switched to the MC Türkiye Bosporus West committee for the LKA NRW, a chapter of migrants in which members of Arab clans set the tone.
After the chapter lost its importance, the 44-year-old said he had the opportunity to switch to the Satudarah MC – and to become vice president. The club comes from the Netherlands, is known for its brutality and ruthlessness and for openly defying the Hells Angels. So, says Sander, he was also involved in the war between the two clubs and prevented the attack on the President of the Hells Angels in Duisburg.THIS TEXT IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE VICE BOOK ’10 QUESTIONS YOU WOULD NEVER DARE TO ASK – RELENTLESS INTERVIEWS’. EDITED BY TIM GEYER, PUBLISHED BY RIVA VERLAG
He later went to prison for six years for aggravated robbery and coercion. To this day, Sander protests his innocence. If he had disclosed his intelligence agency, he would not have been convicted, he says. But he was not allowed to do that, he is still not allowed to do that today. That is why we cannot check his statements. All in all, however, they seem credible.
We have questions.
VICE: How much money do you make as a rocker? Jan Sander: Nothing. The European boss of the Bandidos might get 3,000 euros from his club. Tax-free, but you don’t go to an MC to make money. I don’t think you get anything with the Hells Angels, I don’t know for sure. But if you are a capable businessman, you can make a lot of money as part of the MC. Then you use the structure, the reputation of the club to build your business. But on the contrary: the club deserves from you. He’ll lend you a Harley for 2,000 euros a month, 70 percent of which goes to the president and everyone involved. You are interchangeable for a rock club. He’ll take you out if you haven’t understood.
Were you too bad for the Hells Angels or the Bandidos or why did you go to Satudarah?
I knew the boss of Satudarah, it turned out that way. First I was in a migrant chapter of the MCs committee. But that soon mauled itself, which is why I switched. But in principle it is like this: the more you can do it, the more money, contacts and reputation you bring with you, the more prominent clubs are open to you. And of course the more business you bring with you. But I had my image as Miami Gianni, the pimp from Hamburg. I was gladly taken.
Did you have to start from scratch and endure humiliating tasks?
Yes, but at the boss’s request. Nevertheless, they immediately took me seriously because I was smarter than the others, had a business behind me and also my Harley Davidson Night Rod. It is no longer a matter of course nowadays that someone has a decent motorcycle.
I then rose to Vice President of Duisburg’s Satudarah MC in a very short time because I wasn’t talking nonsense. But in the beginning I had to start downstairs, wait in front of the clubhouse if there were meetings inside, wash the car or drive the boss home drunk. I always had to protect him from himself, take the key out of his hand, if he wanted to drive completely blown up again.
What was the silliest rule in the MC?
You have to hug all your brothers in greeting. When we went to a party in Holland and there were 500 Satudarah guys partying, I was busy for the first 45 minutes running across the grounds and patting everyone on the back.
Did you fear for your life before?
Yes, almost every day. I also lived in the focal point, where my MC had no business. Accordingly, I was always on the hit list. That led to my Harley being set on fire in front of my door as a final warning. I was afraid for my life at the committee and anyway at Satudarah. It really went off there. I had chases with the Hells Angels. They drive past you in the inconspicuous BMW, take a picture of you, then call the clubhouse, say that there is an enemy rocker and if you are at war with them, they send their boys over to stab you shoot or beat you up.
But in the MC your enemies are not just the police and other MCs. The enemies are sitting with you in the clubhouse. Sometimes the mood changed from one minute to the next, they closed the doors and then one in 20 men got in the face. For nothing, for shit, for dirt. It never happened to me, but I did experience it, it was very depressing. The Sergeant of Arms and three or four people lured a brother into an ambush in the clubhouse and immediately kicked him to the ground. Then he shut the door outside, inside I heard him squeak and scream. You always had the feeling with them that it could be over for you at any moment. It didn’t feel like family.
Are you all tough guys or are you just pretending to be?
In the MC, most of the people are broken characters who would not exist in the normal world. They have problems with aggression or are unemployed or simply failures. And with the MC, even the harmless types become assholes. That’s why a lot of people just want to get a taste of it and then get out again. They see that the rockers are just crazy. A normal thinking and functioning person with good values and a good upbringing does not want to participate.
Do you guys who quit burned out the club tattoos?
MCs threaten this every now and then when someone quits. But I never experienced it. They play with this cliché and it certainly happened at some point, somewhere in the USA. But who should really come with the hot air dryer or the soldering iron and actually burn the whole thing out of your skin? You have to be extremely brutal for that. Especially here in Germany it is actually inconceivable that there is a psychopath who would do that. That’s always a lot blabla. But as an outsider you don’t know that.
How lonely were you in your time as an undercover agent?
Very. You only have contact with weak mates. There are phases when the only normal people in your life are the cops. And you only see them every few months because they don’t want to endanger you. All other people are scared of you or turn away from you because they are scared of the people you hang out with. In the ice cream parlor you then say “thank you” twice more often to take the fear away, but you can still tell that the waitress just wants you to leave as soon as possible.
How much did your time as a rocker and in jail destroy you?
I’m completely nervous. Getting out is the best that could have happened to me. I just want to be in peace and to have to do with normal people. I can’t even watch a crime thriller in the evening.
Have you ever felt like a traitor?
No, I knew from the start what I was getting myself into. For me it was just a bunch of criminals and I already knew people from other assignments. I’ve always found them disgusting. Of course there were also one or the other cool guy. Mostly family men, craftsmen who went to work normally during the day and only went to the MC for fun. They stayed out of the illegal things. But I hardly had anything to do with them.
And if I noticed that someone was being forced to do something illegal, for example to hide a few kilos of coke with them, then I didn’t report it to the police immediately. Then I made sure that the stuff got away and only then turned on the police, but they also said: They don’t do it voluntarily. This has a mitigating effect. But if such an asshole had drugs or weapons with him and he didn’t care that his wife and children lived there too, then I had no pity.
