After over 30 explosions and several fatal shootings in the first month of the year, the Swedish government admitted the country was suffering from a new wave of violence over which it had no control.
In a press conference on January 30, the Council Against Organized Crime held an extraordinary meeting about the violence.
“That we do not have control over the wave of violence is quite obvious,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said at a press conference.
“This is Sweden’s inherited problem. They have grown over a very long time.”
Kristersson addressed all those who are worried and wonder if their door will be blown up tonight, not least in hard-hit southern Stockholm.
“We share exactly this concern,” he said.
Kristersson announced changes to tackle the crime surge, including the accelerated ability for police to wiretap children, something that only was supposed to enter into force in the summer of 2026. Now it will be introduced in October of this year.
Swedish police will also create a special team for rapid response to explosions.
Social media platforms were also urged to be more active in preventing recruitment of young people by criminals.
“We have repeatedly appealed for more self-censorship and self-sanitization of the platforms. If this is not done, we will implement Swedish legislation against their ability to use the platforms in this way,” Kristersson said.
The press conference was held less than a day after the murder of Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden who became world-famous after carrying out several Quran burnings. He was shot dead at home while live streaming on TikTok.
According to the Prime Minister, it was too soon to determine the implications of Momika’s murder for Sweden’s security situation until the identity of the perpetrator has been determined by the Security Service and the police.
“I can guarantee that the security services are deeply involved in this because there is obviously a risk that there is also a connection to foreign powers,” Kristersson said, but then added in response to a question that there is no evidence for this.
Most of the violence in Sweden is driven by criminal gangs, in particular motorcycle and drug gangs, such as the Bandidos and Foxtrot, where many people with a migration background are active.
Around 62,000 people are estimated to be active or linked to a criminal network in Sweden, and around 600 gang criminals abroad.
Kristersson said the government wants to take away citizenship from criminals with dual citizenship.
Furthermore, the Swedish government is considering transferring inmates to serve their sentences in foreign prisons and has already begun negotiations with several countries to rent cells, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer confirmed on Wednesday.
The announcement comes just hours after a parliamentary commission, appointed by the government, concluded that there are no legal obstacles to transferring prisoners abroad due to the severe overcrowding of Sweden’s prison system.
In just two decades, Sweden has gone from being one of the safest countries in Europe to leading the EU in firearm-related homicides. The surge in gang-related violence has overwhelmed the judiciary and prison system, pushing Swedish correctional facilities to the brink of collapse.
Sweden’s prison system currently has 11,000 places, but the Prison and Probation Service estimates that by 2033, it will need at least 27,000.
“We need to find new solutions for the prison system,” Strömmer said in a press conference. Without specifics, he confirmed that Sweden is negotiating with several countries that are willing to take in prisoners.
According to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Estonia is one of the countries Stockholm is considering for prisoner transfers.
Mattias Wahlstedt, head of the parliamentary commission studying the issue, stated that prisoners could only be transferred to EU countries or those in the European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein).
Additionally, inmates will be unable to refuse transfer, and factors such as family presence in Sweden will be considered.
“Someone with a deportation order does not need to reintegrate into Swedish society,” Wahlstedt emphasized. He also confirmed that minors under 18, convicted terrorists, and psychiatric patients will be excluded from the measure.
The numbers paint a grim picture. In 2023, Swedish courts handed down 200,000 months in prison sentences, a 25 per cent increase from 2022 and double that of 2014.
That same year, Sweden recorded 121 homicides, with a rate of 1.15 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 87 murders and a rate of 0.91 in 2013. Although homicides have slightly decreased since their peak in 2022, bomb attacks have increased.
In January alone, police recorded 30 bombings, most linked to gang extortion against businesses and private citizens.
But the problem has increased over decades. In 1975, there were 421 reported rapes in Sweden. By 2014, that number had soared to 6,620 reports, marking a 1,472 per cent increase over 30 years.
High crime levels in Sweden are pushing rescue workers to drastic measures; those in the city of Uppsala, near Stockholm, will be equipped with bulletproof vests. https://t.co/dn6B7sYKIs
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 25, 2024
