Danish Justice Minister slams gangs hiring Swedish teens to carry out shootings

Denmark’s justice minister on Monday condemned organized crime gangs that hired Swedish teenagers to carry out deadly shootings on Danish soil, saying it reflected “a totally sick, depraved culture of violence.”

According to Peter Hummelgaard, there have been 25 cases since April where young Swedes were hired by Danes to commit crimes in the Øresund Strait.

Hummelgaard was responding after Danish state broadcaster TV2 showed him a printout of an encrypted Swedish chat with people looking for hitmen to shoot named individuals in Denmark, along with a price list ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 kronor ($28,500 to $47,500).

“It is terrifying in every way and it makes me angry. Really, really angry,” the justice minister said, adding that he would “put pressure on Sweden to take responsibility for these things as well.”

Last week, Hummelgaard announced that Denmark will increase inspections of trains crossing the Øresund Bridge, which connects the Danish capital with the Swedish city of Malmö.

He added that police would be given more resources to monitor vehicle traffic at the crossing.

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“We are increasing surveillance, partly to increase security, but also to prevent Swedish child soldiers from coming to Copenhagen to carry out tasks related to gang conflicts,” he said.

The government in Stockholm has been struggling with gang violence for years, while police in Denmark have also noted violence between gangs, but to a lesser extent.

Swedish police recorded a rise in the number of teenagers under the age of 18 recruited to commit murders in 2023, as they do not face the same police checks as adults and are often protected from prosecution.

‘Cannon fodder’

One of the largest criminal networks in Denmark is “Loyal to Familia”, a street gang that was banned in 2021. Danish police say there is a conflict with a rival gang, but have not specified which one.

“Their members are probably the ones who are most often stopped and frisked by the police,” sociologist Aydin Soei told Danish broadcaster DR last week.

Soei said it was “convenient” for the gangs to use the Swedish teenagers as “cannon fodder”.

He made the comments after a 17-year-old Swede was remanded in custody for a shooting in Kolding, western Denmark, and another 16-year-old was also detained for a separate gun incident in the capital Copenhagen.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said it was “a scary example of cynical criminals hiring young Swedish people to commit crimes in Denmark. We will not accept that.”

Last year, authorities in Sweden estimated that 62,000 people in the country had ties to criminal gangs.

The gangs often recruited members from immigrant neighborhoods. Most of the violence occurred in Sweden’s three largest cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.

In 2022, gang shootings in Sweden rose to 391, with 62 deaths, according to official police statistics. However, the number has fallen slightly since then, with 164 shootings and 22 deaths in the first seven months of this year.

In Denmark, according to official figures, there were 1,257 people known to the authorities at the end of last year who had links to organised crime.

Most of the violence in the country took place in Copenhagen and its suburbs.

Danish police recorded 21 cases of gang-related shootings in 2023, with four deaths, down from 33, with six deaths two years earlier. Police recorded two shootings and one death in the first quarter of 2024.

Denmark has taken a tougher approach to immigration and gang violence than its Scandinavian neighbors in recent years, prompting some right-wing politicians in Sweden to suggest that Stockholm should adopt Copenhagen’s tactics.

Some of the measures include the forced relocation of non-Danes from areas where they form the majority and the doubling of penalties for certain crimes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.