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More than 150 Hell's Angels bikers have been arrested in an 'unprecedented' police operation in Canada.

Hell's Angels have been arrested in three countries in a huge crackdown

The huge raid – dubbed Operation Shark – took three years to prepare and involved some 1,000 officers.

The bikers are being detained for various alleged drug crimes and murders carried out during Canada's brutal bike wars of the 1990s – when the Hell's Angels clashed with another gang, the Rock Machine.

Most of the arrests were made in the Montreal area of Quebec but suspects were also detained as far afield as France and the Dominican Republic.

"We can go beyond the borders of our country to stop the perpetrators of criminal activity in Canada," said Inspector Richard Emery, from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

"No matter where they hide, criminals can be arrested."

There were a series of similar raids in Quebec in 2001 in a swoop called Operation Springtime, when 139 bikers were arrested.

And police are hoping this latest crackdown will finally put a stop to the outlaw biker gang's involvement in organised crime.

"We have 117 persons that are charged for at least one murder," he said.

"We have about 60 persons charged with 22 murders related to the war in the Quebec area between 1992 and 2002.

"At this period, we have over 200 persons that died, by firearms, by explosives; by a lot of things that we can relate to the bikers."