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CRIME

Young men drive online drug trade to Sweden

The post office has become one of the first lines of defence for Swedish Customs in their fight against the growing trend of buying narcotics online.

Young men drive online drug trade to Sweden

Officials have confiscated so many suspected deliveries lately that their analysis laboratory cannot keep up.

“It’s pouring in,” Stockholm duty officer Mikael Lindgren told the TT news agency.

His agency intercepted more than 3,000 items between January and October 2012 at the postal terminal at Arlanda Airport, north of Stockholm.

The annual tally in 2008 was 2,000.

“When we have more resources, we find more,” Lindgren said in defence when asked why the number had not risen more in the past four years.

The average customer is male and born in the 1980s, the agency’s statistics showed.

“You no longer go downtown and buy drugs from the typical dealer – gangly 25-year-old ‘Kalle’ who himself is an former user,” Philip Jansson at the National Bureau of Investigation (Rikskriminalen) told TT.

“Instead, you simply sit at home and order drugs online. The police don’t have any structure for how to conduct investigation online when it comes to narcotics.”

TT/The Local/at

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CRIME

Teenager held over murder of 39-year-old dad in Stockholm

An 18-year-old man has been remanded in custody on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old man in the Stockholm suburb of Skärholmen. The 39-year-old was shot dead in front of his son, on their way to the swimming pool on April 10th, after he told off a group of youths.

Teenager held over murder of 39-year-old dad in Stockholm

The suspect, who was 17 at the time, has since April been in custody in connection with another case. He is suspected of kidnapping and attempted murder after an incident which left an underage boy with gunshot wounds in Skärholmen in December 2023. 

Another two teens are in custody on suspicion of protecting a criminal and a third boy is suspected of aggravated weapons offences.

A further two people are suspected of involvement but are not in custody.

The 18-year-old denies the murder allegations.

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