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CRIME

Leader of Sweden’s ‘Los Suecos’ gang held in Malmö after extradition

Amir Mekky, the leader of Los Suecos - the Swedish gang blamed for two murders in Spain's Costa del Sol - has been placed in pre-trial detention in Malmö.

Leader of Sweden's 'Los Suecos' gang held in Malmö after extradition
Amir Mekky was one of the intended victims in the triple murder at the Galaxy Cyber café in Malmö in 2018. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Mekky, a Danish citizen with a Moroccan background who grew up mostly in Malmö, was extradited from Spain on Thursday, where he had been serving a sentence. 

He was placed in pre-trial detention on Friday on suspicion of committing series drugs crimes and drugs smuggling offences.

“He denies all accusations,” the 26-year-old’s lawyer Mikael Nilsson told Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT

The prosecutor, Lisa Åberg, requested that as well as being placed in pre-trial detention for the drugs offences for which he had been extradited, Mekky should also be held on suspicion of other weapons and drugs offences. 

But Malmö district court ruled that at this stage he could only be detained for the crimes for which he had been extradited from Spain. 

“The part [of the case] with these new criminal charges will only kick in once Spain has agreed that he can be prosecuted in Sweden for these crimes,” the judge, Niclas Söderberg, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper

Members of the Los Suecos gang were given significantly reduced sentences when they were tried in Spain in exchange for agreeing to plead guilty to two of the murders for which they were suspected. 

In Spain, Mekky admitted being an accessory to one of the murders, and he had been held in pre-trial custody so long that he was due to be released from prison soon, leading Sweden to revive its accusations against him, leading to his extradition. 

Mekky was the intended target of a triple murder which took place on the Galaxy Cyber café in 2018, but escaped alive, albeit injured.

This shooting was one of the early attacks in a tit-for-tat gang war between people close to Mekky and other criminal groups in Malmö which two years ago led to one of the city’s biggest gang trials, with the cracking of the Encrochat secure messaging service giving police unprecedented access to the planning of the attacks. 

Mekky was arrested in Dubai in 2020, after which he was extradited to Spain. 

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CRIME

Sweden jails best-selling thriller writer for tax evasion

The Stockholm appeals court sentenced Håkan Nesser, one of Sweden's best-selling contemporary thriller writers, to 18 months' jail for tax evasion on Friday. His wife received the same sentence.

Sweden jails best-selling thriller writer for tax evasion

The court found the couple guilty of not declaring to the tax authorities the transfer of nearly 13 million Swedish kronor ($1.23 million) from companies in Malta between 2013 and 2015.

“We’re in shock and we feel like we’ve been run over by a tank,” Nesser said.

He said he had hired an accountant to manage his financial affairs.

The crime writer was acquitted in the first instance in the spring of 2023.

At the time, the court accepted the author’s argument that the transfers had occurred through ignorance of tax rules.

Nesser has written 48 books that have sold some 20 million copies worldwide.

His first book was published in 1988.

His works, several of which have been adapted for the big screen or for television, have been translated into more than 20 languages.

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