In a coordinated operation, police raided 40 sites on Tuesday in Germany, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden, seizing weapons, drugs and computers, Europol said in a statement. The identities of the three arrested suspects were not released.

One of the men arrested was the result of the Norway arm of the operation. National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) told Aftenposten's online edition that they raided four addresses in Norway on Tuesday, three in Oslo and one in Stavanger.

"Among other things, weapons, ammunition and computer equipment were confiscated," Ole Petter Ekhaugen, head of the NCIS intelligence division said.

One of the leaders of Bandidos Norway, resident in Oslo, was arrested for possession of drugs. A total of four arrests were made in Norway.

The investigation into the bikers club was launched in 2003 following the death in Bolzano, Italy, of a Bandidos leader. A member of the rival Hell's Angels was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment for the murder, Europol said in a statement.

Europol, which coordinated the operation at the request of the Italians, said the Bandidos club was suspected to be involved in smuggling weapons and in extortion. It expected more evidence to surface against the bikers from an analysis of the seized computers.

The Bandidos has been involved in gang warfare and crimes for years, especially in the Scandinavian countries. Turf wars between it and the Hell's Angels in the 1990s left 12 people dead and more than 70 wounded in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Earlier this year Lars Harnes, the head of Bandidos Norway, was convicted and sentenced to over four years in prison for his role in a robbery at Aker Brygge in downtown Oslo.

The Hells Angels and Bandidos have clashed in Norway for some time and in 1997 a Hells Angels bomb leveled their rivals' headquarters in Drammen.