One of the most notorious figures linked to the Hells Angels biker gang was briefly detained by police in Slovakia on Tuesday evening, 9 September, but released within hours due to legal constraints.
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, founded in California in 1948, presents itself as a brotherhood of motorcycle enthusiasts but has been repeatedly linked to organised crime worldwide.
Necati Coskun Arabaci, 53, a Turkish national long associated with the group’s Cologne branch and nicknamed “the godfather of Cologne”, was identified by police while dining with relatives in a restaurant in the western Slovak city of Nitra.
“Mr. Arabaci has been listed in the Schengen Information System since the end of August at the request of the Federal Republic of Germany,” said Roman Hájek, a spokesperson for Slovakia’s national police, as quoted by Aktuality.sk. “After his identification, we contacted German authorities and began proceedings for his administrative expulsion.”
Police said Arabaci was issued an expulsion order with a 30-day deadline to leave the country. However, because he is registered as a family member of an EU citizen, Slovak law does not allow him to be held in custody for deportation. He was released shortly before 2:00 on Wednesday to cheers from family and friends, according to Slovak media.
A history of convictions
Arabaci has a long record in Germany, where he was convicted of pimping, human trafficking, assault and extortion before being deported to Turkey in 2007 after serving part of his sentence. He has also been linked to an alleged plot to assassinate a German prosecutor, though charges were later dropped due to translation errors in wiretaps.
In 2015, a Spanish court issued a European arrest warrant for Arabaci over suspected organised crime, extortion, pimping and drug trafficking. He was briefly detained in Turkey in 2018 but released due to lack of evidence.
Arabaci has continued to surface across Europe, often flaunting luxury cars in Monte Carlo and more recently appearing in Slovakia. Local tabloids reported that he had been spotted with Slovak rapper Rytmus in Bratislava earlier this year.
Facing expulsion
Slovak authorities have now moved to expel Arabaci from the country, though his lawyer, Namir Alyasry, confirmed that an appeal against the decision has been filed.
Company records also list Arabaci as the sole director of NS Enterprise s.r.o., a firm registered in Šamorín, near Bratislava, though his official residence is given as Fužine, Croatia.
For now, Arabaci remains at liberty in Slovakia while the appeal process unfolds.
A controversial photo
Michala Gánovská, a journalist and parliamentary candidate for the far-right Republika party in the 2023 elections, recently posted a photograph on social media standing next to Arabaci. She described him as a “world celebrity”, comparing him to Slovak influencer Zuzana Plačková and convicted mobster Mikuláš Černák.
Commenters quickly suggested that Arabaci was a dangerous organised crime figure, slamming Gánovská for presenting him as a “celebrity.”
