A 26-year-old alleged leader of a criminal network and another person have been banned from living in parts of Västra Blombacka in Södertälje. This is the first time that the Södertälje police have used the new law on preventive detention of individuals.
Since February 1, the police have been able to ask prosecutors to issue special restraining orders for people who are believed to be committing crimes that negatively affect the security of an area – for example, because it is feared that firearms or explosives will be used.
Now police in Södertälje have used the new law for the first time, banning two people from parts of the crime-ridden Västra Blombacka area, where a 21-year-old was shot dead in early July.
One of the men is 26 years old, according to the newspaper Länstidningen, and according to the police he belongs to a criminal gang of about 20 people called “Saltskogsfalangen”. The 26-year-old is said to be a driving force in the criminal network, which consists mainly of teenagers and young adults, and according to the police, he mainly socializes with younger people – which could be a sign that he is trying to recruit them. Just in May, he was convicted of assaulting a member of a rival gang from Ronna.
The man is banned from the area until December 15 and faces a year in prison if he violates the ban.
Drug sales and weapons caches
According to the prosecutor’s decision, gang members in body armor patrol Västra Blombacka, and it is believed that the criminal networks have recently “shifted their positions”. A number of residents in the area have also called the police after gang members have been in their stairwells, where they have vandalized, abused and sold drugs, among other things. In addition, several guns have been found in “public spaces” in the area, according to the newspaper.
– The restraining order is a tool to make public places safer. It can have a deterrent effect and makes it easier for the police to prove a breach of the law. Targeting the right people can also make it more difficult to plan and organize serious crime, Kristian Malzoff of the National Police Agency, Noa, told Telgenytt.