Customs Officers To Carry Arms In Battle Against Drug Gangs

Sweden is seeing skyrocketing levels of violent crime at the border.

Stockholm, 2023. október 2. Rendõr egy lezárt útszakaszon Stockholm Hasselby Villastad északnyugati városrészében, ahol robbanás történt egy lakóépületben 2023. október 2-án. Egy héten belül másodszor történt detonáció Stockholmban, szeptemberben összesen 12 ember esett áldozatul az alvilági szervezetek háborújának Svédországban. Ulf Kristersson miniszterelnök szeptember 29-én bejelentette, hogy bevonják a hadsereget a bûnbandák elleni küzdelembe. A kabinet októberben terjeszti be az országot sújtó példátlan bûnözési hullám felszámolására irányuló javaslatait a fegyveres erõk és a rendõrség együttmûködésének módjáról. A hadsereg bevonása a bûnüldözésbe nagyon szokatlan lépés a skandináv államban. MTI/EPA/TT/Henrik Montgomery Fotó: Henrik Montgomery

Customs officers in Sweden are being equipped with service pistols and rifles to protect themselves against drug gangs amid an alarming increase in serious violent crime at the Swedish border, the V4NA news agency points out.

In a press release following a report submitted to the Swedish government on Monday, the customs chief said the organisation has a duty to ensure the safety of its staff, who are increasingly likely to to be exposed to violent criminals smuggling narcotics across European borders, RMX News reports.

"Recent developments in serious crime have meant that we have to create safer working conditions," Director General Charlotte Svensson of Customs Management said, explaining that

the confiscation of large quantities of drugs is occurring with growing frequency from “criminals with great potential for violence” who may opt to attack customs officials, considering the street value of the goods being seized.

Currently, Swedish customs officers are only equipped with rubber batons and pepper spray.

"Criminals in Sweden shoot without batting an eye, and who’s to say they won’t do the same if we catch them with drugs or weapons?” an official told Swedish state television SVT Nyheter on condition of anonymity.

As V4NA had reported earlier, Sweden has been experiencing an explosion of gang violence, with detonations and shootings breaking record highs again last year.

Last September, Swedish National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg said,

The country is witnessing an unprecedented wave of bloody gang warfare and shootings,

RMX News recalls.

"Several boys aged between 13 and 15 have been killed, a criminal’s mother was murdered in her home, and a young man was shot dead on his way to work in Uppsala,” the police chief listed some of the more extreme cases in a televised press conference.

In 2022, a record 60 fatal shootings were recorded throughout the country, and by the start of December last year, 50 people had been murdered in shootings in 2023. There were also 140 bombings, up considerably from the 90 recorded incidents the previous year.

Swedish police estimate that approximately 30,000 people across the country are directly involved with or have ties to gang crime, including 9,000 active members and 21,000 associates, many of them minors who are increasingly being groomed to conduct serious criminal offenses on behalf of the criminal gangs.

In addition to caches of illegal drugs, the Swedish Customs Agency confiscated 93 million Swedish krona (€8.15 million) in cash at the borders in 2023, up 22 million krona (nearly €2 million) from the previous year.

"Proceeds of crime are taken out of Sweden to be laundered in other countries. The money then ends up in the pockets of major criminals who control the drug trade and smuggling. Of course, we have to fight that,” Svensson added.

Cover photo: Police on a closed off road in the north-western district of Hasselby Villastad in Stockholm, Sweden, following an explosion in a residential building on October 2, 2023 (Photo: MTI/EPA/TT/Henrik Montgomery)