Swedish child soldiers – Border security report

By Lina Kolesnikova – Security and crisis management expert

On August 12, Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard warned that Denmark would put pressure on Sweden to curb cross-border gang violence. It mainly concerned armed Swedish teenagers who acted as child soldiers in criminal gang wars. The minister called it “a frightening phenomenon” that Danish gangs hire young Swedes to do “their dirty work”. “There are people who are masterminds in the non-Western world – in Lebanon, in Dubai, in Iraq – pulling the strings and starting conflicts with each other in Copenhagen. Very simply: we do not want to tolerate that,” says Hummelgaard.

In social media groups, such as the encrypted Telegram or through other secret channels, ‘orders’ are given for murders or explosions. For example, in one of its posts, SVT (Swedish TV channel -LK) showed how a ‘client’ is looking for someone willing to throw a grenade into a house in Denmark. The promised payment amounts to 30 000 – 40 000 Swedish crowns, which corresponds to approximately 19 500 – 26 000 Danish crowns (approximately 2 600 – 3 500 euros – LK).

Since April last year, there have been 25 incidents in Denmark involving teenagers from Sweden hired by criminal gangs in Denmark (data for August 2024 – LK). In one of the latest cases, one of the gang members was murdered.

Denmark is not alone in suffering from this new phenomenon of cross-border “services” linked to the free movement of people across Europe and beyond. Gangs from Sweden became involved in other criminal incidents that took place in Norway, Turkey and Iraq in recent months.

Denmark has seen an increase in violence on its territory by Swedish gang members in recent months and the trend is a spillover from its northern neighbor, which has by far the highest gun violence per capita in the EU.

In August, Danish police began actively monitoring passengers arriving from Sweden by train. The Danish government was considering using facial recognition technology at the Øresund Bridge (the bridge between Denmark and Sweden – LK) to speed up the searches and investigations that were done manually. Denmark has also tightened border controls with Sweden after the wave of shootings. To speed up intelligence collection and checks, the Minister of Justice announced that the Danish Police would further intensify its cooperation with the Swedish Police by permanently stationing an officer with the Swedish Police to ensure even more permanent and effective cooperation on the the field of intelligence services.

Cross-border criminal services for young people became a prominent issue that attracted the attention of politicians in the two countries. Some Danish political parties demanded the introduction of full border control between the two countries. The Minister of Justice considered this measure unnecessary, because in these circumstances there is nothing to indicate that border control would be an effective instrument. On the contrary, he assumed, the resources spent on establishing border control at the Öresund Bridge would be much better spent on equipping the police with even more manpower and technological power capable of ‘decrypting’ the information channels used by criminals ‘ or ‘to invade’. The goal would be to see what is being ordered and who is offering what services, and then stop (prevent) the activity before anyone even tries to perform it. The minister believes that the adopted anti-gang measures, laid down in packages, are a good instrument to reduce gang crime in Denmark, “so that it does not grow to the uncontrollable level that you see in Sweden or the Netherlands.” The latest package – the so-called gang package four – came into force on July 1, 2024.

According to the assessment of the Danish Ministry of Justice, the latest wave of violence involving criminal services originating from Sweden is the by-product of the organized gang LTF (Loyal to Familia), which is in conflict with another, as yet unknown network, and both groups of criminal services of Swedish teenagers. Loyal To Familia was ruled an illegal association by the Copenhagen court in 2018. The Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2021. However, the group is still active. As with most gang conflicts, the battle for the drug market appears to be central to that conflict.

Swedish child soldiers
The EU statistical agency Eurostat reports that 25 people between the ages of 15 and 24 were killed in gun violence in Sweden in 2021. That’s the top two in the EU in France alone, which had 40 such deaths in a population six times that of Sweden. In Sweden there were cases where children as young as eleven were hired to kill. Last year there were 149 bomb attacks in Sweden. Ordinary people increasingly find themselves in the crossfire of gangs.

According to last year’s police report, Sweden had about 14,000 active gang criminals and another 48,000 people loosely associated with gangs.
The growing involvement of children and young people in criminal activities in Europe is striking. Sweden has continued to make headlines over the past five years with a story about “something has gone terribly wrong” in the country previously known for its security and social cohesion. In Uppsala, for example, a local police survey found that a quarter of criminal gang members are under 18 years old.

An important fact that requires attention is that both victims and perpetrators are mainly boys and men with a foreign background. They often belong to the second and third generations in families who came to Sweden as migrants or refugees, mainly from the Middle East, Africa, Afghanistan, Turkey and other places. Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson has blamed the rise of organized crime on ‘naivety’ about immigration and an ‘irresponsible immigration policy and failed integration’.

In mainstream political debates, some parties attribute the rise of ‘immigrant’ crime and violence to a lack of social support offered to them. But in the case of Sweden this does not apply. In that case, there are no socio-economic explanations such as the lack of social elevators, poor urban areas, the inaccessibility of education, etc. Sweden is a country with one of the best social security systems in the world. The Swedish system offers newcomers plenty of opportunities to integrate into society. Surprisingly, the Swedish situation shows exactly the opposite, as it is the existing social security system that is blamed for the unwillingness of immigrants to build a new life and integrate into the “normal” activities in society. So it seems that first there is not enough ‘will’, and then ‘explanations’ may be attached to that lack to turn things around, such as not enough social support, or too much social support, etc.

The lack of ‘will’ is a complex phenomenon that ‘is not necessary, it is good enough as it is’, ‘they (the locals) are to be played and are natural victims to be robbed’, and other discouraging agendas. The lack of ‘will’ largely stems from the environment (family, friends, street life, etc.) in which children grow up. Most young gang members have been on the social services radar for years.

A second important fact is the popularity of the criminal ultra-violent gun crime culture, which is associated with a certain prestige in urban areas with a predominantly migrant population. Swedish journalists note that “these children have been trained by criminals – they live, eat and breathe a culture of violence.” ‘Robin Hood’-ization of criminals, however the term may be translated in the respective cultures, according to Swedish police, more and more children from middle-class families are involved in criminal activities.

One of the examples is the great popularity of Snabba Cash TV series among these groups. The series gives the charming picture of a gang member and an exciting life in a gang environment. This is especially true in environments where money is the main motivator and other social ties are underdeveloped.

Third, the legal systems in the EU, and in Sweden in particular, are not prepared for criminals under the legal age. Anyone under the age of 15 is immune from prosecution in Sweden and cannot be detained by the police. Swedish legislation was not intended for gang wars and child soldiers. Gangs now recruit children to carry out contract killings – some as young as 15 – knowing they cannot be put in jail. For contract killings they receive smaller amounts, but at the same time young people are given the opportunity to climb the criminal hierarchies (rite of passage).

There are several reasons why young Swedes might be willing to engage in criminal activities. Firstly, the penalty for murder if you are under 18 in Sweden is usually four years, so they are used to the consequences not being very severe.

Second, committing murder is associated with prestige, which gives them the opportunity to move up in the gang hierarchy. It is an example of how to quickly obtain capital by joining violent forces. Something that is of great value in the gang environment.

Finally, there could be the fact that participation in a criminal gang ensures the social bonds of a group of people, that is, the status of being part of something. Young people have more protest in their blood than wisdom and the combination of this with no or weaker social ties in mainstream society leads to teenagers becoming more violent more easily and requiring less persuasion.

Children and teenagers in criminal groups in Europe
Powerful criminal gangs often use children to commit murders because they receive lenient sentences.

Criminal organizations actively use children under the age of 14 as drug couriers (or, in extreme cases, as murderers) because minors are immune from prosecution. On January 15, 2018, around 2,000 people took to the streets of Naples to protest a wave of violent attacks by gangs of young people, many of whom were minors.

Italian police and prosecutors have been successful in prosecuting and jailing members of organized crime; As a result, these organizations have started looking for new opportunities in recruitment.

This is nothing new: child soldiers are routinely recruited or forced to fight, especially in Africa. But the latest innovation is that children are allowed to reach higher ranks in criminal groups.

Due to a lack of responsibility from families and the lack of sense of responsibility towards society and the country, young people often have to learn from what is around, and more and more extremist and criminal activists are taking advantage of this.

In short, cross-border services (private armies, mercenaries, criminals, etc.) have become a reality.

However, the current situation in the Scandinavian countries is very interesting. We have already seen several cases of intense disputes over the situation of Schengen’s internal borders (France versus Italy, Switzerland versus France and Italy, Germany versus Poland, etc.), but these are all about illegal migrants. This is the first time that we see that an EU state’s inability to cope with its internal security challenges forces its neighboring state to think about border protection. It’s easy to suggest that we’ll see more and more similar discussions in the future.