Sweden now has the highest crime rate in Northern Europe, according to a new study that notes the country’s particular problems with gang violence and other crimes relating to gang activity, such as fraud, arms trafficking and drug trafficking.
The study, compiled and released by the NGO Global Initiative (GI), claims that Sweden had a 4.7 rating out of 10 on its Organised Crime Index, and is the highest of eight Northern European countries, which includes the Scandinavian region and the Baltic states.
According to the report:
Most organized crime groups and gangs in Sweden are dominated by non-ethnic Swedes from the Balkans and the Middle East, among others. According to reports, foreign-born individuals and their offspring are significantly overrepresented in crime, while foreign groups not based in Sweden – predominantly from eastern Europe – enter the country to conduct burglaries and theft. Organized Roma groups are also increasingly prevalent. However, domestic criminal networks continue to dominate areas in Swedish cities, adding to growing insecurity about their influence in Swedish society. Loose networks mainly operate in larger cities but also maintain a strong foothold in disadvantaged rural areas and smaller cities. The escalation in shootings and explosions in the last few years indicates these groups’ propensity towards violence, which has led to a heightened risk for security services.
Sweden has seen a surge in gang-related violence since the start of the year. The conflict is largely based in the Stockholm region and involves a notorious gang leader known as the Kurdish Fox, real name Rawa Majid, along with his rivals. The ongoing violence has seen a child as young as 13 murdered this year.
Majid, who lives in Turkey, was able to acquire Turkish citizenship and the government of Turkey has been reluctant to extradite him to Sweden to face criminal prosecution for his alleged involvement in gang violence and murders.
National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg commented on the GI study saying that previous promises by prior governments to tackle the ongoing gang situation have not borne fruit and that the situation is worse than ever.
“I’ve been a police officer for 40 years. I have never experienced a situation like this before. It’s unprecedented,” Thornberg said.
Johan Gustafsson, detective inspector at the National Firearms Center at the National Operations Department (Noa), also commented on the figures saying, “We see that a lot of weapons are brought into Sweden, but the fact that we stand out in Europe may also be due to the fact that customs and the police today are discovering more.”
The report states that arms trafficking in Sweden remains “significant” and states:
Organized gangs in major cities frequently use illegal arms and explosives. The increased availability of arms on the black market, and a rising demand for illegal firearms among criminal gangs, are evidenced by a growing number of police seizures and increased reports of illegal possession and gun crimes. Arms are trafficked into Sweden mostly from the western Balkans, albeit on a relatively small scale. Arms trafficking appears to be inextricably linked to drug trafficking. In late 2022, for example, gang conflicts in Stockholm arising from a drug turf war evolved into a cycle of revenge attacks.
Since the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, some have also raised concerns in Sweden that weapons from that conflict may also find their way into the hands of gang criminals.
Swedish Inspector Gunnar Appelgren spoke out on the issue in June of 2022, saying, “There is a high risk of flows of illegal weapons entering Sweden,” and added, “If there are weapons, there is a market, and if there are conflicts, there is a need for weapons. And we have conflicts in Sweden.”
The GI report comes just over two years after another report from Sweden’s Crime Prevention Council, Brå, noted that Sweden had the highest rate of fatal shootings of all European countries.
Last year, Sweden saw over 60 people fatally killed in firearms-related incidents, a yearly record for the country. The vast majority of cases were linked to gang crime and were up from just 17 a decade prior in 2022.
So far this year, the violence has not decreased, with September seeing a record 11 fatal shootings in that month alone.
The violence comes on the back of a booming illegal drug trade and a criminal economy worth up to 150 billion Swedish kronor per year, the equivalent of around 12.8 billion euros.
Immigrant gangs are also believed to have infiltrated various companies in Sweden as well as some aspects of the public sector, with Anders Thornberg claiming that criminal gangs now pose a direct threat to democracy in Sweden.
In February this year, members of the Vårby network were accused of infiltrating the local Social Democrat party in Botkyrka, a town south of Stockholm, where they managed to oust a politician known for being tough on gang crime.
Just weeks later, Brå announced that it would be looking into the effect of criminality on Swedish politics and whether or not there was a major issue of gangs influencing politics among local governments in cities like Gothenburg and Södertälje, where gangs have allegedly influenced building permits among other issues.
