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CRIME

Norwegian and Swedish police to work together on gang crime

Norwegian and Swedish police are to deepen coordination on gang crime, after growing evidence that gangs based in Sweden are bringing drug and gun crime to Norway, the two countries' police chiefs said on Wednesday.

Pictured is a Swedish police helicopter.
Norway and Sweden will cooperate further on organised crime intelligence. Pictured is a Swedish police helicopter.Photo by Niklas Jonasson on Unsplash

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.

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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

According to Aftonbladet, the raids may be connected to one of Sweden’s most wanted gang leaders, Ismail Abdo, nicknamed Jordgubben (“The Strawberry”).

Police didn’t comment on specific names of gang leaders linked to the raids, but said in a statement that 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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