Danish minister slams gang recruitment of teenagers for shootings

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard on Monday condemned organized crime gangs that hire Swedish teenagers to carry out deadly shootings in Denmark, saying it reflects “a totally sick, depraved culture of violence.”

According to Hummelgaard, there have been 25 episodes since April in which young Swedes have been hired by Danes to commit crimes in Denmark.

Hummelgaard responded after broadcaster TV2 showed him a printout of an encrypted Swedish chat. It said that hitmen were wanted to shoot dead named individuals in Denmark. The price list ranged from $28,500 to $47,500.

“It’s scary in every way and it makes me angry. Really, really angry,” Hummelgaard said, adding that he would “put pressure on Sweden to take responsibility for these things too.”

Sweden has been struggling with gang violence for years, while police in Denmark have also identified gang violence, albeit to a lesser extent.

Last year, Swedish police noted an increase in the number of teenagers under the age of 18 being recruited to commit murders, as they do not face the same police checks as adults and are often exempt from prosecution.

Hummelgaard met with the head of the Danish National Police, Thorkild Fogde, on Monday, where they discussed ways to tackle the problem, including introducing facial recognition technology and software to access encrypted messages.

“It’s about technology, about digital tools, the dark web. The technology that is at our disposal. There is a whole catalogue of technical tools to use,” Fogde told reporters.

Hummelgaard called facial recognition technology “a very, very good idea” but said the law would need to be changed to allow it. He said that would happen as soon as possible.

One of the largest criminal gangs in Denmark, Loyal to Familia, was banned in 2021. According to Danish police, there is a conflict with an unnamed gang.

“Their members are probably the ones who are stopped and frisked most often by the police,” sociologist Aydin Soei told Danish broadcaster DR last week, after two Swedish teenagers, aged 17 and 16, were remanded in custody for shootings in Kolding in western Denmark and Copenhagen respectively.

“Unfortunately, it is convenient for them to be able to use Swedish children as cannon fodder,” Soei said.

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, Swedish authorities estimated that 62,000 people in Sweden were connected to criminal gangs. They often recruit members in socially deprived migrant neighborhoods, and most violence occurs in Sweden’s three largest cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.

In 2022, gang shootings in Sweden rose to 391, killing 62 people, 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, some 1,257 people were known to authorities for connections to organized crime at the end of last year, according to official figures. Most of the violence in Denmark takes 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.