Swiss Federal Prosecutor Stefan Blättler has called for decisive action against gang crime in his country, citing what he called conditions in Belgium and Sweden, where “dozens of deaths” have happened.
Speaking with the newspaper SonntagsZeitung on January 4, Blättler noted that Switzerland had 120 terror proceedings underway, a historic high and double that of 2022.
While the country has suffered incidents related to jihadism and organised crime, Blättler said: “It must not be the case that rival gangs from organised crime fight each other on the streets.”
“I don’t like to say it, but we have to be careful that we don’t end up with conditions like those in the suburbs in Belgium or Sweden, where the traces of gang crime have now become clearly visible – with shootings, dozens of deaths and protection rackets.”
Both Belgium and Sweden have received a large number of migrants in recent decades. In both countries, an ever-growing drug trade in particular is believed to be operated by criminals with a foreign background.
Extreme violence connected to organised crime is reaching new heights in the German city of Cologne. According to police, this is in large part due to the so-called “Mocro Mafia”. https://t.co/EOv2SztfEo
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 10, 2024
Belgium and the Netherlands have suffered under the so-called “Mocro Mafia”, consisting of various criminal organisations predominantly — but not exclusively — made up of people of Moroccan descent.
They often use extreme violence, resorting to explosives and automatic weapons. Grenade attacks and fire bombings have happened on numerous occasions in the port city of Antwerp, while Brussels, the capital of Europe, has experienced a rash of deadly shootings.
In Sweden, gangs such as the so-called “Kalo network” and “Foxtrot”, allegedly led by Rawa Majid, also known as the “Kurdish Fox”, dominate the illegal drugs world marked by violent turf wars.
The rise of such gangs has often been attributed by experts to inadequate integration policies for immigrants and socio-economic challenges faced by these communities.
In late December 2024, a popular gangster rapper with Syrian roots, Gaboro, was shot dead. His alleged murder was later put online in a video.
Since 2018, Sweden has seen a wave of bombings, a crime that was not categorised separately prior to that year. The number of grenade attacks in 2016 was similar to that of Mexico, a country ridden with drugs gangs and a very high murder rate.
Blick, a Swiss newspaper, recently noted that the Swiss Foreign Department advised tourists in its travel advice that they should be careful in certain areas of Belgium and Sweden.
Regarding the Nordic country, it stated: “In individual districts, there are often clashes with firearms between different criminal gangs,” for the Swedish cities of Malmö, Stockholm and Gothenburg.
Blättler said criminal organisations were comparable with corporations that networked with each other via joint ventures. Investigating such cases was extremely time consuming, he added.
“It takes years just to uncover the networks. Sometimes we lack the investigators for that. That is a grievance.”
“I have individual dossiers in the drawer that we can’t process immediately – simply because there is a lack of staff,” he said.
Blättler warned that Switzerland faced grave challenges, possibly influenced by the instability in the Middle East.
“We must expect that terrorist activities in Switzerland will increase. We are already at an all-time high,” he said.
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
