Last year, gang violence in Scandinavia claimed a record 53 lives in Sweden.
Three Swedish individuals were apprehended in Spain by police from many European nations on suspicion of recruiting children to commit crimes, including attempted murder, according to officials.
According to Sweden’s Prosecution Authority, the Swedes, who were arrested in Alicante as part of an operation that involved Swedish, Danish, and Spanish officers along with Europol and Eurojust, are suspected of a number of crimes, including attempted murder and weapons offenses.
Prosecutors claim they recruited young people “to participate in serious violent acts” that occurred in Sweden and Denmark during the spring and summer of 2024.
The three suspects put “ads offering contract killings” on an online channel “targeting vulnerable youth as young as 13 to 14 years old” and operated an online “criminal cell,” according to Europol.
“The online channel has now been closed, and investigators are working to identify other individuals involved in this network,” added the statement.
The organization’s coordinated intelligence and digital evidence assisted in identifying the ring’s administrator in Spain.
“While the recruitment of minors into serious organised crime and terrorism is not new, in recent years it has evolved into a deliberate tactic by criminal networks to evade detection, arrest or prosecution,” Europol stated.
Gang-related violence
In recent years, Sweden has had difficulty controlling an increase in gang shootings and bombings, which are frequently committed by young people who are recruited through encrypted messaging systems.
According to police, gang score-settling caused a historic surge of violence in 2023, killing 53 people in 363 shootings in the 10.5 million-person Nordic nation.
There have been recent reports of violence in Norway and Denmark connected to Swedish gangs.
