In a motion, Moderate Member of Parliament Jan Ericson is asking the parliament to support the legalization of the possession and use of pepper spray. Ericson believes that society has let down its citizens, and the benefits of allowing Swedes to possess pepper spray outweigh any potential risks.
“Many girls and women feel an increased sense of insecurity in our society. More and more people are taking self-defense courses, and many use alarms and other measures to defend themselves against attacks. At the same time, there is a very effective means of defense against attacks that is not allowed – pepper spray”, he writes, among other things.
Ericson points out that in a society that “has let people down by not forcefully acting against insecurity”, it is also “reasonable to allow people to use pepper spray”.
“Therefore, it should be considered whether the prohibition against possessing and using pepper spray should be lifted. The benefit of an individual experiencing increased security should be valued higher than the potential risks of lifting the ban”.
This is not the first time Ericson has made a motion about pepper spray – as early as 2017, he wanted sales of the spray to be allowed, primarily due to the growing number of rapes and sexual assaults that have dramatically increased in Sweden.
Currently, anyone found in possession of pepper spray risks being convicted of a weapons offense, which could theoretically result in a prison sentence.
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Despite the Swedish police raising the alarm about the growing Foxtrot gang network back in 2021, the leadership chose not to act. Today, the network is linked to over 30 murders – at least 16 of which were completely unrelated civilians.
The documentary series En gång bröder (Once Brothers) reveals that a special police investigation team identified Foxtrot four years ago as a rapidly expanding group with a high propensity for violence.
According to the head of intelligence at the police, Jale Poljarevius, the group sounded the alarm early on – but the alarm was deprioritized in favor of other gangs.
– If we could turn back time, we would have quickly redirected our efforts in this direction, Poljarevius told state broadcaster SVT, admitting that Foxtrot had long been off the police’s radar.
It was only after several high-profile murders in 2022 that Foxtrot began to come under police scrutiny. According to the documentary, the network has since been linked to over 30 murders, at least 16 of which were innocent civilians with no gang connections.
Rawa Majid is wanted internationally by Interpol. Photo: screenshot/Interpol.int
Division escalates the spiral of violence
The division within Foxtrot in September 2023 marked a new level of violence. One faction, led by the internationally wanted Rawa Majid – also known as “Jordgubben” (Strawberry) – is suspected of, among other things, the murder of Ismail Abdo’s mother, which further escalated the conflict.
During the summer of 2023, Swedish police managed to infiltrate the network using encrypted chat groups such as the Signal app. This breakthrough led to several arrests and indictments against a number of people in Foxtrot’s top echelons, including for particularly serious drug offenses.
Despite this, the violence continues. According to SVT’s information, the network has also expanded to Norway, where Swedish gang crime has become a growing problem.
At the time of writing, National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg has declined to comment on the investigation.
In many cases, offenders are young, under the influence of drugs and do not know their victims - and there is a high risk of selecting the "wrong" target.
It has often been claimed that the victims of criminal gang violence are almost always involved in organized crime themselves. But according to the Swedish police, that picture is now wrong.
Since the beginning of 2023 alone, at least 60 outsiders have been killed or injured in shootings and explosions linked to criminal networks
– This is an effect of the high level of conflict, which has been the case for a number of years. We believe it will continue to be high, August Knutsson, operational coordinator at the police’s national operations center, told Swedish Radio.
According to police figures, 22 outsiders have been killed and another 38 injured in gang-related attacks over the past two and a half years.
In some cases, the violence has been directed against relatives of known criminals – such as relatives or girlfriends – but there are also cases where the wrong person is killed by mistake, or someone is injured simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In 2023 in particular, the number of external victims increased sharply, and although the trend seems to have slowed down somewhat, police have already recorded at least six cases in 2025.
Young people and drug addicts
According to the police, a key explanation for the increase in the number of innocent victims is that the killings and blasts are largely carried out by very young people – often with no previous experience, and sometimes brought in from other cities.
The young perpetrators have no relationship with their victims and often act on vague instructions. In many cases, they have only seen a picture of the target or an address, which increases the risk of misidentification and attacks against the wrong people.
– This is an effect of the fact that many of the perpetrators of these crimes are not part of the conflict itself. Many are young perpetrators who take on different missions. Often under the influence of drugs, with little local knowledge and no individual knowledge, states August Knutsson.
– They’re given a task to carry out, and that results in a high risk of shooting or bombing the wrong target.
“In the past, you did not go to relatives”
One of the more high-profile cases occurred at the end of April this year, when a mother and her young daughter were seriously injured in an explosion at their home. According to prosecutor Daniel Insulander, the attack was aimed at the wrong person.
– They are innocent. In the past, you did not go after relatives or girlfriends. It was very rare that innocent people became victims of something like this.
– Storming into a place and shooting wildly, throwing explosives inside, or trying to burn down a house where innocent people are present – this has become much more common now than just five years ago, he says.
A bun-baking grandmother in Norrbotten has been sentenced to prison by the Court of Appeal for selling homemade buns without a permit. While the court takes her unauthorized baked goods seriously, many are questioning whether Swedish courts have time to knead such trivial matters.
A 65-year-old woman in Norrbotten has been sentenced to six weeks in prison for selling buns, bread, and sandwich cakes via Facebook without a registered food business, according to a ruling from the Court of Appeal for Northern Norrland, reports Bonnier-owned Expressen.
The municipality had prohibited the sales and issued fines totaling SEK 130,000 (€12,000), which the woman, living on a pensioner’s income, could not pay. The fine was therefore converted into a prison sentence – a penalty her lawyer calls “unreasonable”.
For several years, the woman has been running the business and engaging many customers on social media by posting pictures of her baked goods and her grandchildren.
Jojo, det går bra att ta i med hårdhandskarna när det inte är något våldskapital hos motparten. Bra signal till medborgarna så att ingen ska tro att den systemhotande kriminaliteten kommer att angripas.
Translation of above tweet: “Yes, it’s okay to use heavy-handed tactics when the other side isn’t violent. It sends a good signal to citizens that no one should think that crimes that threaten the system will go unpunished“.
Appealed to the Supreme Court
Attorney Frida Larsson stresses that the woman considered baking a hobby, often giving away buns to her grandchildren and charging only a minimal amount to cover ingredient costs.
Nonetheless, the Court of Appeal chose to swiftly impose a prison sentence, despite her health issues and financial hardship.
– She is deeply distressed and does not understand how she will endure a prison term given her deteriorating health and age. This has taken a heavy toll on her, Larsson says.
The ruling has sparked public outrage and is being appealed to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the question remains: Is prison truly the right recipe for justice in this case?
Criminal networks are now placing young people in selected schools to maintain control over drug trafficking and territories. The Swedish government says it has called a crisis meeting with three authorities to counter this development.
Several schools in metropolitan areas have become hubs for the gangs’ strategic exercise of power, according to a report by the state broadcaster SVT’s Uppdrag granskning.
By influencing school choice, the networks place young people with links to criminal circles in specific educational environments – a way of ensuring continued drug sales and keeping an eye on rivals.
School administrators and teachers have sounded the alarm about how young people are being distributed among schools according to the wishes of gang criminal networks.
According to reports, groups divide cities among themselves in order to avoid conflicts and secure the market.
– From what I experience, they’re told from above to choose schools so they can maintain power, their territory or control over a specific school, says an anonymous school host.
Dystopiskt nytt avsnitt av uppdrag granskning.
Gängkriminella bestämmer vilka skolor elever ska gå i för att deras nätverk ska behålla kontroll över området.
Skolan används sedan för att sälja narkotika, förvara vapen och rekrytera unga. pic.twitter.com/AtEc9JNss1
Planning for school choice often takes place outside the school grounds, where older criminals meet younger ones. The choice of upper secondary school becomes part of the gang’s long-term strategy to keep sales channels open during the three years the students are studying.
At the same time, some students store weapons and drugs on school premises, and in some cases the school is used as a recruitment base for violent assignments. Police and school staff report a worrying increase in such cases.
– If we talk about an area where I have many enemies, where I know I’ve hurt people, if they go to a school there, I definitely don’t want to start at that school. Because they’ll come after me, says gang member “Hassan”.
“Hassan”, whose real name is something else, is in his last year of high school and has ties to criminal networks. For him and other students in similar environments, the choice of school determines their safety.
Photo: facsimile/Hem&hyra/Youtube
A tenfold increase
Statistics from the Swedish Prosecution Authority show that the number of 15-17-year-olds suspected of murder has increased by over a thousand percent in a decade. During the first quarter of this year, 128 young people were charged in 190 different murder investigations.
Children under the age of 15 have been suspected of 136 cases of murder planning – a threefold increase compared to last year. This development has prompted the government to call in the National Agency for Education, the Swedish Schools Inspectorate, and the Police Authority.
The aim is to coordinate efforts and prevent schools from being used as part of the criminal infrastructure.
– School should be a safe place for learning . not an arena where criminal forces gain a foothold. It is completely unacceptable that teachers are intimidated into silence by students with violent tendencies, strategically placed by criminal networks, says Minister of Education Johan Pehrson.
At the same time, the Crime Prevention Council reports that prosecutions of 15-17-year-olds increased by 10% in 2023 compared with the previous year.
However, researchers warn that repressive measures alone are not enough – preventive work and social support measures are highlighted as crucial to breaking the trend.
The Swedish government has announced that more proposals are on the way. The authorities’ feedback is expected in the coming weeks.
