Swedish police lead European cyber efforts against the gang leaders

– This is a huge investment to radically improve the ability to access those who are further up in the food chain, those who order the murders. We will be better at getting in and identifying the people behind digital alias to be able to prosecute them, says Teodor Smedius, police officer at NOA and participating in international cooperation.

The Swedish police will now lead an international effort together with Europol, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France.

– We raised the question last winter and now the collaboration is starting sharply, says Teodor.

It was at the beginning of 2024 the police identified the phenomenon of « Violence-as-A-service ». Thus, rapid recruitment of young violence in social media and encrypted chats. What is going on is sometimes described as a kind of gig economy in violent crime.

Only today Tuesday Several minors have been sentenced to long penalties for gang murders in Stockholm and Gothenburg. TT also reports on a 16-year-old Swede who is suspected of being hired for a murder in Norway.

– We believe that we are only at the beginning of this development. It is very serious crime to access. The client can sit in one country, a facilitator who does the procurement in another, an performer in a third who is hired to murder someone in a fourth country.

The problems are growing in other countries.

European police cooperation, Europol, writes that digital recruitment « has in recent years developed into a deliberate tactic of criminal networks to avoid detection, gripping or prosecution. The practice has spread across several countries and the recruitment methods have changed, where minors are increasingly exposed to violent activities.

A lot is about getting better purely IT-technical. The police are recruiting and internally trained fully. You will also share technical knowledge with the other countries in the effort.

– We clearly need more people who are better at Cyber, we have to admit that. We are working hard to predict the next step in this so as not to be taken to bed again, says Teodor Smedius.

– But that is a cultural issue too. We need to be better at collaborating with our regions in Sweden and with other countries. We have become good at preventing and intervening in the physical space. But we are far behind digital. That is why we make this big venture.

The Swedish government Trying to get a grip on the situation through an assignment to the Crime Prevention Council. Brå will find out more about how criminal networks recruit children and young people in social media and other digital environments to commit crimes. They should also propose measures to counteract and prevent.

But that work should not be reported until the autumn of 2026.

Read more about gang violence here.