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Police bust weapons smuggling ring

More than 100 hand grenades and around a dozen automatic weapons on their way to Stockholm were confiscated on Friday when Bosnian police swooped down in on a weapons ring that had been on law enforcement’s radar since last year.

Published: 11 April 2015 14:48 CEST

Police bust weapons smuggling ring

Bosnian police confiscated weapons on their way to Sweden. Photo: Shutterstock

A large criminal network began to unravel after police in Bosnia and Sweden confiscated a large number of illegal weapons and drugs that were meant for the Swedish market, news agency TT reported.

Police became aware of the smuggling ring after a raid in Slovenia last September where five automatic weapons and 59 hand grenades were found in a car on its way to Sweden. Since then, police from Sweden, Bosnia, Serbia and Slovenia have conducted reconnaissance missions in the Stockholm area and several countries in the former Yugoslavia.

The international law enforcement operation went under the name Recoil.

This latest haul by Bosnian police netted 105 hand grenades, around a dozen automatic weapons, several kilos of explosives and a large number of tablets classified as narcotics.

Swedish police held their own raids, confiscating two automatic weapons.

In Sweden, three people have been taken into custody, suspected of serious weapons and narcotics offences and attempted smuggling.

“They came from the former Yugoslavia several years ago and a number of them were living under the radar,” said Gunnar Appelgren, chief of the reconnaissance section of the regional investigation unit in Stockholm.

“Since then they made contacts with criminals and established a network for narcotics and weapon smuggling,” he added.

Besides the three people being detained in Sweden, seven were taken into custody in Bosnia and in Serbia.

Police in Sweden said while they suspected that the weapons had been ordered by criminals in the Stockholm area and other parts of the country, they were surprised at the size of the shipment itself.

“Earlier you mostly saw smaller numbers, maybe one or two weapons were brought over the border at a time,” said Appelgren. “But in this case we’re talking about a bulk order, which is something new.”

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

What happened?

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, according to police and participants.

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Moment theatre in Gubbängen, a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, shortly after the attack.

According to Swedish media, one person was physically assaulted and two had paint sprayed in their faces.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence, with pepper spray, and vandalised the venue before throwing in some kind of smoke grenade which filled the foyer with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website.

The magazine’s head of education Klara Ljungberg was at the event in order to hold a lecture at the invitation of the two political parties.

What was the meeting about?

According to the Left Party’s press officer, the event was “a meeting about growing fascism”.

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar described the event to public broadcaster SVT as an “open event, for equality among individuals”.

As well as Ljungberg from Expo, panelists at the event included anti-fascist activist Mathias Wåg, who also writes for Swedish centre-left tabloid Aftonbladet.

“They were determined and went straight for me,” Wåg told Expo just after the attack. “I received a few blows but nothing that caused serious damage.”

“I was invited to be on a panel in order to discuss anti-fascism with representatives from the Left Party and the Green Party,” he told the magazine. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, but there’s obviously a risk when Expo and I are in the same place.”

What has the reaction been like?

All of Sweden’s parties across the political spectrum have denounced the attack, with Dadgostar describing it as a “threat to our democracy” when TT newswire interviewed her at the theatre a few hours after the attack occurred.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, from the conservative Moderates, called the attack “abhorrent”.

The Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals are currently in government with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, while the Social Democrats, Left Party, Centre Party and Green Party are in opposition.

“It is appalling news that a meeting hosted by the Left Party has been stormed,” Kristersson told TT. “I have reached out to Nooshi Dadgostar and expressed my deepest support. This type of abhorrent action has no place in our free and open society.”

“Right-wing extremists want to scare us into silence,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson wrote on X. “They will never be allowed to succeed.”

“The attack by right-wing extremists at a political meeting is a direct attack on our democracy and freedom of speech,” Green Party co-leader Daniel Helldén wrote on X. “My thoughts are with those who were affected this evening.”

Sweden Democrat party leader Jimmie Åkesson wrote in an email to TT that “political violence is terrible, in all its forms, and does not belong in Sweden.”

“All democratic forces must stand in complete solidarity against all kinds of politically motivated violence,” he continued.

His party has previously admitted to being founded by people from “fascist movement” New Swedish Movement, skinheads, and people with “various types of neo-Nazi contact”.

“It is an attack not only on the Left Party, Green Party and the Expo Foundation, but also on our entire democratic society,” Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok, who referred to the attackers as “Nazis”, wrote on social media. “Those affected have all my support.”

Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch and Liberal leader Johan Pehrson both referred to the attackers as “anti-democratic forces”.

“It is never acceptable for a political meeting to be stormed by anti-democratic forces,” Busch wrote. “There is no place for this in our society.”

“Anti-democratic forces like this represent a serious threat to our democracy and must be met with society’s hardest iron fist,” Pehrson said.

What about the attackers? Has anyone been arrested?

Not yet. The police had not made any arrests at the time of writing on Thursday morning.

According to TT, police did not want to comment on who could be behind the attack.

It is currently being investigated as a violation of the Flammable and Explosive Goods Act, assault, causing danger to others and disturbing public order.

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