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CRIME

Two held over shooting outside Israeli embassy in Stockholm

Two people are being held in connection with a shooting outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in mid-May, a prosecutor said.

Two held over shooting outside Israeli embassy in Stockholm
File photo of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

The incident prompted the country to boost security measures around Israeli interests and Jewish community institutions.

“Two people have been arrested suspected of aiding and abetting an aggravated weapons offense,” prosecutor Rasmus Öman told AFP.

Öman said he could not comment on the ages or genders of the suspects, who face questioning before a decision is made on whether to remand them in custody.

Another person had previously been arrested suspected of the same crime, but was then released.

Öman said that a 14-year-old boy was believed to have fired the weapon, but since he was under the age of criminal responsibility in Sweden he was not formally suspected of any crime.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, several incidents apparently targeting Israeli interests in Sweden have been reported.

In February, police found a grenade on the grounds of the Israeli embassy compound, which the ambassador said was an attempted attack.

Last week, police said they had found a “suspected explosive object” outside the offices of Israeli military technology firm Elbit Systems, known for its unmanned aerial systems, in Sweden’s second-largest city Gothenburg.

The Scandinavian country’s intelligence agency Säpo said in late May that Iran was recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden – a claim Iran denied.

The Nordic country has also reported an increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes since the war in Gaza started.

The war started with Hamas’s October 7th attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s massive retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,202 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

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CRIME

Illegal Swedish strawberry sales raise billions of kronor for organised crime

Swedish police have carried out raids on strawberry vendors suspected of being linked to gang crime.

Illegal Swedish strawberry sales raise billions of kronor for organised crime

Police told Dagens Nyheter that the raids were connected to one of Sweden’s most wanted gang leaders, Ismail Abdo, nicknamed Jordgubben (“The Strawberry”).

In a statement police said they had “hit a central violent actor by targeting individuals around this person and their business structures”.

Raids were carried out in Bergslagen, as well as the Mitt and Stockholm police regions.

It’s suspected that these sellers had been marketing Belgian strawberries as Swedish and using the revenue to fund serious organised crime. Police also found children under the legal working age and migrants without legal residency permits working at the stalls.

Police believe that illegal strawberry sales turn over billions of kronor every year.

“We’ve carried out multiple actions together with other authorities,” Per Lundbäck, from the Bergslagen policing region, told Swedish news agency TT. “By cutting off the finances off this type of organised crime, we can weaken gangs’ financing and their ability to carry out crimes.”

To avoid buying strawberries linked to crime, Lundbäck recommends paying attention to the company you buy your strawberries from.

“The first thing you can do is look at the number the (mobile phone payment app) Swish payment goes to, to make sure it’s a company number starting with 123, and not a private number,” he said.

Most companies will have their Swish number displayed somewhere on the stand, so you should be able to check this even if you don’t have the app and are paying with card, for example.

He also added that you can pay attention to the age of the person selling the strawberries, describing very young sellers as a “red flag”.

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