Swedish police to be posted to Denmark to attempt to cease gangs recruiting youngsters

Swedish police are to be primarily based in Denmark on a preventive foundation for the primary time in an effort to cease youngsters and younger individuals from Sweden travelling to Copenhagen to commit violent crime on behalf of Danish gangs.

From subsequent week officers from southern Sweden will likely be completely posted in Copenhagen, whereas Danish officers have already joined the Swedish operation room in Malmö.

The unprecedented cross-border preparations come after a sequence of great incidents within the final month – together with lethal shootings and possession of weapons similar to hand grenades – involving suspects from neighbouring Sweden.

Swedish police mentioned youngsters as younger as 12 had been being recruited by Danish gangs on social media to cross the border by automobile or public transport with the intention to commit crimes.

Final month, a Swedish 16-year-old was arrested on suspicion of tried homicide in reference to a taking pictures in Blågårds Plads, a quiet sq. within the Nørrebro neighbourhood of Copenhagen. This week, a 25-year-old Swedish man was arrested whereas carrying two hand grenades in Tingbjerg, Copenhagen.

The violence has led to warnings this week from each nations’ governments. The Danish justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, condemned the “wicked tradition of violence” in Sweden, saying he didn’t need such criminality imported to Denmark. His Swedish counterpart, Gunnar Strömmer, has introduced he’ll journey to Denmark subsequent week to fulfill him.

The violence has additionally led to elevated border checks on trains between Malmö and Copenhagen – a brief practice journey over the Øresund bridge – and the introduction of particular policing zones within the Danish capital the place officers are allowed to conduct random checks the place there isn’t a suspicion of a criminal offense.

Copenhagen police have mentioned the violence is the results of a simmering battle between two felony teams in Denmark. One among them relies round Copenhagen and the opposite has no fastened base and is basically managed from exterior Denmark, they imagine.

Whereas shootings and bombings have been a problem in Sweden for quite a lot of years, the recruitment of younger individuals travelling to Denmark to commit crimes is considered a brand new growth that has emerged over the past month.

“They’re travelling to Denmark and doing felony work there. The Danish police have arrested younger children from Sweden as suspects for violent crimes,” mentioned Stefan Sintéus, the commanding police officer for severe organised crime in southern Sweden.

“It’s not a battle between gangs in Sweden and Denmark. It’s a battle in Denmark utilizing younger children from Sweden. The criminals are placing up jobs on open sources on social media and the younger children have an interest to take the work.”

The kids are sometimes weak, he mentioned, and warned that youthful youngsters risked going through considerably longer sentences in Denmark than they might in Sweden. Though they’re paid, they’re largely motivated by “the glory and standing as a new child felony” he mentioned.

Though Swedish and Danish forces have collaborated earlier than, it’s normally in reference to a particular case. This would be the first time officers are completely stationed in neighbouring forces to hold out preventive work.

Sintéus mentioned by sharing data, investigators hoped to cease younger individuals suspected of travelling from Sweden to Denmark with the intention of committing crimes from reaching the border.

Swedish police are additionally working with forces in Norway and Finland. The cross-border and on-line nature of crime networks means officers must work internationally, mentioned Sintéus. “It’s very world, criminality proper now, and it’s digital. We might have a man sitting in Turkey who’s giving the roles to a felony in Malmö who will go to Copenhagen to commit the crime.”

Danish police confirmed they had been sending officers to southern Sweden “to strengthen the already shut cooperation between the 2 nations’ police authorities in combating organised, cross-border crime” and that they had been in an “ongoing dialogue” about posting Swedish officers in Denmark. “This contains, not least, an in depth each day alternate of details about the present crime scene, which ought to additional improve the pace of concrete investigations.”

The cooperation of the 2 police groups had led to a number of arrests the place they had been capable of intervene earlier than crimes had been dedicated, mentioned Danish police.

A number one Danish police inspector, Torben Svarrer, mentioned the Danes had seen a number of circumstances by which younger Swedish residents had come to Denmark “to commit crimes harmful to individuals”. Intelligence indicated that unlawful medication – particularly the suspected theft of these medication by “one other social gathering” – had performed a central position in these circumstances, he added.