One would think from the title above that the analysis is about a third world country. This is not the case: group violence in Sweden is spreading more aggressively and could soon reach Denmark. Authorities and the government are on high alert.
Sweden has been fighting organized crime for years, with more and more children and young people involved in the gang wars. These gang wars now threaten to spread to Denmark as well. Recently, several incidents have occurred where young people from Sweden tried to commit murders in Denmark. Copenhagen has warned the Swedish government: enough is enough!
Copenhagen on high alert: Swedish gang wars claim victims in Denmark.
Sweden has always been considered a safe country, but gang wars are becoming a major problem in the Scandinavian state. Organized crime – with isolated violent clashes – mostly occurs in certain districts of Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo. In 2020, the number of gun deaths in Sweden was 4.6 per one million inhabitants.
By comparison, in Europe, an average of 1.6 people die from gun violence per one million inhabitants.
Gunnar Strömmer, the Swedish Minister of Justice, says that 62,000 people can be linked to violent criminal gangs. In Denmark, the police registered 1257 people connected to gangs at the end of 2023. The trend is on the rise in both countries.
In mid-August, the police in the Danish capital requested reinforcements due to suspicions of gang wars in Copenhagen. They also established so-called “visitation zones,” where officers can check people and cars randomly, without any specific suspicion of a crime. The reinforcement and increased control were triggered by the shooting death of a 43-year-old man in Copenhagen on August 8. According to research by Ekstra Bladet, there is a conflict between the influential Danish Loyal to Familia (LTF) and a renegade gang founded by a former “executive member” of LTF, controlled from abroad. Their war has led to several violent incidents, the police reported. The National Crime Prevention Council says that the increase in violent crimes is mainly due to offenders between the ages of 15 and 29.
Child soldiers are brought from Sweden to Denmark
According to the Danish DR broadcaster, gangs in Denmark recruit young Swedes via Telegram. Their tasks include, among others:
– using grenades,
– violence,
– vandalism,
– and assassinations.
The gangs offer young people 300-500,000 Swedish crowns for each murder. This is equivalent to about 30,000-44,000 euros, or 10-17 million Hungarian forints. Jens Møller Jensen, a former deputy police inspector in Copenhagen, describes the Telegram posts as “scary” and “alarming.” Since April of this year, there have been 25 cases of recruiting Swedish citizens in Denmark.
Peter Hummelgaard, the Danish Minister of Justice, spoke about “child soldiers” on a Danish TV2 program: “The novelty is that we are dealing with Danish criminal groups that buy hitmen and child soldiers from Sweden, where they have the capacity to carry out the tasks.”
Experts believe that recruitment also happens through Signal, TikTok, or Instagram.
At the end of July, shots were fired in the Nørrebro district, and a 16-year-old Swedish citizen was arrested. On August 5, a 17-year-old shot an 18-year-old six times in the Frederiksberg district of the Danish capital. About a week later, the police arrested a 25-year-old Swede in the Tingbjerg district, who was armed with two hand grenades.
Denmark tries to protect itself
The Danish Minister of Justice, Hummelgaard, announced that he will put pressure on the Swedish government to control the problem. Sweden has so far been relatively vulnerable to organized crime. In the fight against gang wars, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced last September that he would call in the military for help. This followed the deaths of three people in less than 24 hours, presumably in disputes between rival gangs.
According to the NZZ, experts see three reasons for the burgeoning gang crime in Sweden:
– overloaded police force,
– politics that have turned a blind eye for too long,
– and socio-economic segregation.
The socially disadvantaged areas on the outskirts of Sweden were neglected for too long, while private schools improved – schools in the former zones suffer from a lack of resources. Many young people have no prospects for the future without education and easily become gang members.
Shootings and violence in the criminal milieu
A few years ago, Sweden was among the European countries with relatively low homicide rates, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, Brå. Now, however, they have drawn attention to the significantly increased murder rate, which is now higher than in many other countries that previously had worse statistics in this regard. The increase in Sweden is primarily linked to a rise in armed violence.
The organization’s statistics also show that there are many similarities between the perpetrators and victims of gun homicides. It is not uncommon for those killed in shootings to have previously been suspected of similar crimes themselves. They are usually young men, and research shows that the suspects and victims of gun homicides are getting younger.
Disadvantage and immigration go hand in hand
Such crimes concentrate on socially disadvantaged areas identified by the police, but in recent times, they have spread to other locations. The relative risk of being suspected of attempted murder or murder is 3.4 times higher among those born in Sweden to two non-native parents compared to other groups. The risk of being registered as a suspected perpetrator of fatal violence is greater than for almost any other type of crime.
The Brå has previously published two research studies on the topic, but several years have passed since the publication of the most recent study focusing on the crime registered between 1997 and 2001.
However, immigration to Sweden has increased since 2001, and the composition of the non-native population has changed. The current study aims to update and improve the knowledge base on the criminal activities of native and non-native individuals in Sweden based on this.
