A total of 188 Swedish gang criminals have been arrested abroad so far this year under Swedish arrest warrants, representing a notable increase from the 157 arrests recorded during the same period in 2025. As reported by the Swedish public broadcaster SVT, these figures highlight a concerted effort by Swedish authorities to target key gang leaders operating from foreign sanctuaries. Among the latest high-profile arrests is 21-year-old Emin Muqa Kulic, a senior figure in the notorious Dalen gang network, who was apprehended by Spanish police near Barcelona. Kulic had been added to Europol’s ‘most wanted’ list earlier this spring.
Spain has emerged as a major operational hub for Swedish organized crime, with 33 Swedish nationals arrested there this year alone. Johan Olsson, the head of the Swedish police’s National Operations Department (NOA), emphasized that international cooperation has been crucial to getting these numbers up, as foreign police forces are often highly responsive when Swedish gang violence threatens to spill over into their own countries. Olsson explained that the police’s long-term strategy focuses heavily on apprehending the primary instigators residing abroad, who continue to coordinate contract killings, bombings, and mass shootings inside Sweden.
While police believe that targeting these instigators has contributed to a recent decline in deadly violence within Sweden, the scale of the challenge remains massive. Authorities estimate that approximately 800 Swedish criminals are currently living abroad while actively participating in domestic gang activities. “It never ends. There are always new actors. There is no list we can just tick off,” Olsson cautioned, highlighting that the continuous emergence of new gang leaders remains the department’s greatest operational hurdle.
