At a joint press conference held in Oslo, Sweden’s police chief Anders Thornberg and his Norwegian counterpart, Benedicte Bjørnland, said that the two countries’ police services were stepping up the sharing of intelligence on individual gang members and gangs.

They also plan to open a new police station on the border, half of which would be in Sweden and half in Norway. 

“Norwegian criminals are buying weapons and explosives from Swedish criminals,” Bjørnland said at the press conference. “Sweden has seen a worrying development over organised crime, but there has also been a negative development in Norway. In recent years, there has been growing activity by Swedish gang criminals on Norwegian territory, including people being paid to carry out violent crimes.” 

Thornberg said that Sweden still stood out when it came to shootings, explosions and fraud in recent years and had also become a hub for drug smuggling. 

“Crime knows no borders,” he said. “Sweden has big problems, but there could also be problems in Norway if we don’t work together.”

The new police station is to be built between Sweden’s Eda Municipality, with half the building in Sweden and half in Norway.