‘Swedish’ organised crime spreads to Iceland ━ The European Conservative

After Sweden’s nearest neighbours raised the alarm last month about rising gang crime in the country, even Iceland, more than 2,000 kilometres away as the crow flies, is now complaining that it is being targeted by Swedish gangs.

When the justice ministers of the Scandinavian countries met last Friday, the problem of organised crime was at the top of the agenda, particularly the criminal activities taking place in Sweden.

“There are criminal gangs in Sweden who send people to Iceland to commit crimes,” Icelandic Justice Minister Guðrún Hafsteinsdóttir told Swedish media.

As an example, Hafsteinsdóttir cited an attack on a police officer whose car was set on fire in August last year, which was ordered by a Swedish gang.

“We have confirmed information about a group of individuals who came here for this purpose,” Runólfur Thórhallsson from the Icelandic Police Analysis Unit told the Icelandic newspaper Morning leafAs in previous cases in Denmark and Norway, potential perpetrators were offered a certain amount of money online to commit the crime.

The gang responsible for ordering the police car to be set on fire comes from Trollhättan, a Swedish city of about 60,000 people, and is “multinational but led by Palestinians.” Morning leaf reports. “That’s why it’s perhaps unfair to say that this is coming from Sweden,” said Thórhallsson. “This is an activity that consists of different nationalities and is all around us.”

That particular gang is just one criminal organization trying to establish itself on the small island. “There are 8-12 gangs that we label ‘foreign criminal groups,’” Thórhallsson said. “But there are at least 15-18 criminal groups operating in this country.” So far, the gangs operating in Iceland seem to have a tacit understanding, but there are concerns that could change.

“We don’t see a strong trend in this direction. But this is something we have to think about, that this can happen to us. We see this in the countries around us. There are brutal conflicts between criminal groups,” he said.

In Iceland, there are known cases of children, particularly immigrant children, being recruited to commit crimes. However, so far, these have not been the types of violent crimes reported in Sweden and Denmark.

“We hear from police officers who are on the streets that there are groups forming around shopping malls. There are children under 18. There are no confirmed cases of serious crimes, but they are used to steal things.”

Justice Minister Hafsteinsdóttir announced in a TV interview on Sunday evening that her country will introduce stricter border controls.