Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

TV4 reported after ‘Swedish Mafia’ suicide

A man has reported Swedish television network TV4 after his 21-year-old foster son took his life following the airing of a programme on criminal gangs in which the young man took part.

Published: 9 February 2011 14:39 CET
Updated: 9 February 2011 16:23 CET
TV4 reported after 'Swedish Mafia' suicide

According to the foster father, the young man, identified as Victor by TV4, did not realise the implications of his participation in the six-part documentary series Swedish Mafia (Svensk Maffia), currently airing on Thursdays.

After changing his mind, he unsuccessfully tried to have all references to him cut from the programme. However, the channel chose to broadcast the episode on Thursday and showed the young man’s name and photo.

He was described as a gang member in the programme about criminal gangs. Three days later, he was found dead and is believed to have committed suicide following a pill overdose.

The man’s foster father has reported the programme to the Broadcasting Commission (Granskningsnämnden för radio och TV), newspapers Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter (DN) reported on Wednesday.

“It caused him a great deal of anxiety when it was broadcast,” the foster father told Aftonbladet on Wednesday.

He added that his son did not understand what the programme was about. When he realised that it was about crime, he no longer wanted to take part. He then wrote a letter to Swedish television production company Strix Television, in which he indicated that he would no longer participate in the programme.

Strix was founded and is chaired by Swedish journalist Robert Aschberg. He regrets what has occurred, but does not believe that the company has made any mistakes.

“We have acted entirely properly. That this has happened is a tragedy,” Aschberg told the Aftonbladet daily on Wednesday.

When asked by The Local on Wednesday whether TV4 will continue to air the show on Thursday, as well as the remaining episodes, press officer Magnus Törnblom responded that the network’s plans are currently unclear.

Fredrik Lundberg, editor-in-chief of TV4 and Lasse Wierup, editor of Swedish Mafia, said in a statement released on Wednesday that they met Victor, a native of Stockholm, in early 2010 through a self-help organisation for former criminals.

Several months earlier, he was convicted of robbery and attempted robbery. The verdict was of the opinion that he had psychiatric problems, but did not suffer from serious disturbances.

The week before the programme aired, a female relative of Victor’s called Strix Television after having read an article in DN, saying that he did not realise it would not be in his best interest to participate and that he was incapacitated.

Strix responded that they had no way of determining his clearance and that as an adult, he had consented to his appearance. The relative requested a copy of the requested material on DVD, which was granted, but only to Victor as a participant.

The same day, on January 31st, Victor went to Strix unannounced looking for a reporter who was unavailable. He left a handwritten note asking that his face be pixellated and that he not be named.

The programme aired as schedule on Thursday. On Monday, Strix received learned that Victor had died.

Police are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the death, the editors wrote. A forensic investigation has begun and is expected to be completed in the spring.

“In the meantime, we can only conclude that there are no concrete signs that Victor decided to take his own life in connection with TV4’s publication,” the editors wrote.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLICE

Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

A new report in Dagens Nyheter has revealed over 514 suspected leaks of sensitive information from at least 30 members of the police force to criminals since 2018. Here's what we know so far.

Published: 30 April 2024 12:28 CEST
Updated: 30 April 2024 15:45 CEST
Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

What’s happened?

According to an investigative report by newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN), multiple gang members have infiltrated the police force by, for example, dating police employees, or using family connections to gain access to sensitive information about ongoing cases.

The first article in DN’s series focuses on a woman the newspaper calls Elin, who met a man, Jonas (not his real name), on a dating app when she had one year left of her police education. She falls in love, but his only goal with the relationship is to get a source within the police force which he can use for access to secret information.

Over the course of four years until she was caught, she made multiple illegal searches in the police register for Jonas, his associates and enemies, as well as providing him with information on ongoing investigations against him.

Other cases investigated by the newspaper include a border guard who sold classified information to gangs, a police officer who leaked information to what DN describes as “one of Sweden’s most notorious criminals” and an investigator who was dating a man she was investigating, who she shared screenshots of sensitive information with.

In another case, the police received a tip-off that information was being leaked to the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. It was discovered that a group of five alarm operators had made an unusually high number of searches for members of the Hells Angels, who were later discovered to have connections with the gang that they had lied about during their background checks.

What have the consequences of these leaks been?

In some cases, the leaks preceded revenge attacks on enemies of the gang member involved in the relationship. In other cases, the gang members’ enemies disappeared or were murdered.

Some of the people from the police force involved in the leaks were sentenced to fines for illegal data access or breaches of professional secrecy, while the evidence against others was not sufficient to prosecute. 

At least 30 employees had for different reasons been considered “security risks” and either resigned or were forced to quit, the newspaper reported, with over 514 suspected leaks taking place from police to criminals since 2018.

How do criminals find police officers?

According to DN, they look for things that can be used as blackmail, like police officers who buy drugs, or set “honey traps”, like the one used against Elin, where they meet police officers or students on dating apps and start a relationship.

“You take Tinder, for example, and set your search radius so the police school is in the centre. When you get a match, it’s easy to check if it’s a student, through class lists or how they present themselves on social media. They’re proud of their line of work,” Jonas told DN.

They might also use their family connections to put pressure on relatives who work in the police force.

Why is this important?

It’s important because Sweden has seen a rise in gang-related violence in recent years, with a surge in shootings and bombings as gangs fight for control over different drug markets.

Swedes also have a high level of trust in the police force – 72 percent according to a 2024 study by Medieakademin, topping the list of state authorities, with a higher level of trust than universities, healthcare, the courts and even the Swedish church. This was five percent higher than in 2023.

Although the vast majority of police officers do not leak information to criminal networks, Sweden does not have a history of organised crime infiltrating the police force, so officials are keeping a close eye on these leaks to make sure they don’t become more common.

On April 29th, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told TT newswire that the leaks were “very serious”, potentially putting trust in the police force at risk.

“There are many great risks and one is that trust in police declines, that people get the idea that mafia-like methods are used to infiltrate law enforcement,” he said, before adding that he was unable to say whether it constituted a threat to national security or not purely based on the initial DN article.

“But the mere suspicion of these types of connections are damaging,” he told the newswire.

What happens now?

Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer told DN that he planned to call a meeting with police leadership about the reports, which he described as “extremely serious”.

“[At that meeting] we will consider the need for further measures,” he said.

“Leaking sensitive information to criminals is against the law and can have very damaging consequences for the work of the police force,” Strömmer told DN, adding that it could undermine trust in the police and “damage democracy”.

Last summer, the government increased the penalty for breaching professional secrecy, and a special investigator was tasked with looking at a potential reform of the rules on corruption and professional misconduct in February – the Crime Prevention Council is also involved in that investigation, where it has been asked to provide information on how gangs use government employees.

“Protecting the integrity of the justice system against infiltration and other security threats is a central part of the new national strategy against organised crime that the government decided on earlier this year, and it is given the highest priority in our assignments to the authorities,” Strömmer told the newspaper.

SHOW COMMENTS