Over the past two years, several criminal immigrant gangs based in Sweden have established themselves across most of Norway.
At the same time, people with Swedish citizenship are increasingly being hired to commit murder and other serious crimes in the neighboring country for payment.
The widely publicized “Kurdiska Rävens” Foxtrot network is now described as the dominant crime syndicate in Norway, but other criminal groups such as Dalennätverket, Lejonen and Satudarah Assassins are also found in several Norwegian cities.
According to an investigation carried out by Svenska Dagbladet and Aftonposten, the drug market in Norway is described as relatively “unexploited” and the street price of drugs is significantly higher than in Sweden.
In Stockholm, for example, a gram of cocaine costs €70 – compared to €105 in Oslo – while many serious criminals are said to be looking to the neighboring country in the west because they are tired of the recurring gang wars in Sweden.
The police also believe that the criminal groups from Sweden are better organized and have a higher level of violent capital than their Norwegian counterparts, and that they have therefore been able to displace them with relative ease and “take over” the market.
– It’s not like in Denmark or Finland, where they’ve faced resistance. It seems they’ve just been able to take what they want. The Swedes come with a hell of a reputation as ruthless, says an anonymous Swedish police officer.
Infiltrated group chats
Furthermore, it can be seen how serious criminals with Swedish citizenship are increasingly being hired to commit murder and other serious violent crimes for payment in Norway.
– Experience from Sweden is that there are almost continuous bidding rounds to commit serious violent crimes. This is a phenomenon we are now also seeing to some extent in Norway, says Olav Røisli of the Norwegian police authority Kripos.
Swedish and Norwegian police are reported to have prevented several serious acts of violence after they managed to infiltrate an encrypted group chat and were subsequently able to arrest five people who thought they were chatting with a contract killer from Sweden.
When the men arrived at the agreed meeting point with NOK 10 000 (€850) in an envelope, they were instead arrested by police and subsequently charged with preparation for murder.
The vast majority of known members of the targeted crime syndicates have immigrant backgrounds, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, but despite this, the establishment media consistently choose to describe them as “Swedish gangs”.