Amid ongoing violent criminal gang conflicts, the Swedish government has announced it will create a new explosives registry, as criminal gangs continue to engage in bombings against their rivals, including two such bombings that occurred only this week.
Sweden’s Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer was part of an emergency meeting on Wednesday, September 27th, and later stated that the government would look to act swiftly to counter the bombing trend, broadcaster SVT reports.
“We are in a very serious situation. What is extremely serious about the blasts in particular is that many innocent people are affected,” Strömmer said following the emergency meeting.
He was joined by Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin, who explained that the new national explosives registry would be created in order to make sure the government could track those who were legally allowed to possess explosive material.
“Not a single piece of dynamite should fall into the wrong hands,” Bohlin said, as the registry is expected to come into force in 2024.
Another measure was also announced, aimed at tackling issues of confidentiality that could impede communication between those who acquire and possess explosives and the relevant authorities.
How successful the registry will be is unclear. In 2017, the Swedish government rolled out a policy of amnesty enabling anyone to turn in hand grenades, a form of weapon which have also been used in gang violence. However, in the first five years of the policy, just five grenades were turned in.
The announcement is just the latest by the current centre-right Swedish government regarding tackling gang violence.
Earlier this year in January, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson spoke out on the subject following a number of fatal shootings and called gangs “the domestic terrorists of our time.”
“The police are doing what they can to prevent the escalating violence, but far-reaching and time-consuming measures will be required to get rid of gang-related crime,” Kristersson said.
This week’s proposed measures come after two bombings in just two days this week, the first taking place in Hässelby in the Stockholm region on Monday, September 25th, when an explosion occurred in the stairwell of a residential building at around 9 p.m.
Three people were taken to a local hospital due to injuries suffered as a result of the blast, and around 30 people were evacuated from their homes but were later allowed to return.
Rebecca Landberg, a police spokeswoman, commented on the case saying, “Two people have been taken in for questioning, but I can’t say more at the moment. The police are on site and will begin a technical investigation during the morning.”
The explosion, according to SVT, is thought to be linked to criminal gang activity.
The second explosion took place on Tuesday morning in Linköping and is also believed to be linked to gang crime, specifically the so-called Foxtrot network, as the alleged target is believed to be a female relative of one of the leaders of the gang.
A 25-year-old woman was taken to hospital with minor injuries after the bombing but was later released. Another woman went to the police and claimed to have been injured. A total of 18 apartments were also evacuated following the incident.
According to police, an 18-year-old man was arrested as a possible suspect in the bombing while investigators conducted a technical examination of the crime scene.
The attack on a relative of a gang leader, rather than individual gang members themselves, has become a new trend in Sweden’s ongoing problems with criminal gang violence.
Earlier this month, the mother-in-law of one of Sweden’s most notorious gang leaders, Rawa Majid, also known as ‘the Kurdish Fox,’ was the target of an assassination attempt but the would-be assassin shot at the wrong address and killed another woman, said to have been in her 60s.
The Kurdish Fox currently lives in Turkey where Swedish authorities have been unable to arrest him.The Turkish government has shown an unwillingness to extradite him as Majid was able to acquire Turkish citizenship as part of an investment-for-citizenship scheme.
The pattern of bombings in Sweden is not a new one; in the recent past, the country has reported hundreds of explosions, such as in 2019, when there were an estimated 257 explosions.
Successful prosecutions for bombings, however, have been difficult for Swedish courts, with just seven convictions made in 2019.
In 2020, Marie Borgh, head of the Swedish national police bomb squad, stated that investigations into bombings were uniquely difficult and complex:
It’s difficult with the technical evidence when it’s blown up. Most of it is blown away in connection with the detonation. Often it can be someone who orders this job based on some conflict that exists. A bomb builder will build the bomb and someone will then carry it out.
According to Borgh, most of the bombs are homemade and some can be linked back to specific bomb makers when investigators are able to find similar patterns in construction.
“These are often people with some criminal history combined with a background in a technical profession, for example as electricians. Or just generally technically over-interested people,” she said in an interview earlier this month.
