One of the perks of living on an island

You know, I’ve had my gripes with the Reykjavík police authorities in the past, but I’m rarely as grateful or proud of Iceland’s finest as when the Nordic branch of Hell’s Angels sends its thugs over to stake out the territory and they’re met head-on at the airport by a swarm of police officers who refuse to let them pass into the country. On occasions like those I want to stand up and cheer, convinced that we’ve got the most excellent police and immigration team in the world.

We’ve had several such episodes in the past couple of years – most recently last Friday. The police receive intelligence that there’s a group of Angels on the way and they’re there to prevent their entry, citing grounds of public safety.

The police is inevitably joined in the arrivals lounge by a group of bikers from the Fáfnir club who are there to greet their comrades, ever-hopeful that this time they’ll actually get past immigration. Fáfnir, by all accounts, aspire to become the Icelandic wing [badum tish] of Hell’s Angels. These thugs are some of the most notorious criminals in the country in the drug trafficking, prostitution, and ‘debt collection’ sectors. They happen to have their clubhouse behind the university residence where EPI’s eldest daughter lives, and on occasion we’ve watched [some of] their antics from her window. Needless to say, these are not the sorts of guys you want to bring home to mommy.

The deal with the Angels is that, evidently, you have to perform some heinous crime in order to become inaugurated, and the more serious the crime, the greater the respect you claim. And according to the Chief of Police at Keflavík Airport, who was interviewed on Kastljós last night, the Fáfnir thugs are aspiring to become inaugurated. Undoubtedly the Angels are also eyeing the market for organized crime in Iceland, so for those two camps it would be a win-win situation. They come here for a weekend as Fáfnir’s guests, who play the perfect hosts, supplying them with everything from drugs to women while they talk business. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to run. Only – they’ve not yet succeeded in getting past the border.

Let’s hope it stays that way.

WE’RE IN FOR A STORM TONIGHT
And the wind is whizzing around the house already. Plus the temps have dropped radically so it’s pretty damn cold. Without looking I’d say we’re at the freezing mark ... no, not quite, 2°C according to mbl.is, but according to yahoo it feels like –6°C [22F]. The sun came up at 9:29 am and went down at 4:53 pm.