Wednesday, April 16, 2025

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US imposes sanctions on Sweden-based criminal network

Deteriorating safety

Published 13 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Rawa Majid is wanted internationally by Interpol and others.

The Trump administration is now cracking down on the transnational professional criminal network Foxtrot, based in Uppland. The sanctions target the organization and its wanted leader Rawa Majid, known as “The Kurdish Fox”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the US is imposing sanctions on the Sweden-based Foxtrot network, the US Treasury Department said in a press release.

The network is accused of, among other things, involvement in drug and arms trafficking and contributing to an increase in violent crime in northern Europe. In Sweden, the Foxtrot network has been linked to several acts of violence such as shootings and explosions.

The new sanctions specifically target the network and its wanted leader Rawa Majid. Majid is alleged to have cooperated directly with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence’s security service, which is already subject to US sanctions, reports Norwegian state broadcaster NRK, among others.

– The Iranian regime leveraged the Foxtrot Network to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe, including the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, in January 2024, the US State Department commented on the sanctions.

US puts pressure on Iran

The action is seen as part of the Trump administration’s “renewed maximum pressure campaign” against Iran to underline the US’s “commitment to hold accountable those individuals and organizations who work in conjunction with the regime in Tehran to undermine our nation’s safety and security and our global partners”.

In parallel, President Trump has called for a “verified nuclear deal” with Iran and claimed that reports that the US and Israel are planning to attack Iran are exaggerated.

 

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Gang crime affects all of Sweden – only five municipalities have been spared

Deteriorating safety

Published 13 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff

Only five of Sweden’s 100 largest municipalities have completely avoided gang-related violence between 2020 and 2024, according to a review by Schibsted newspaper Aftonbladet.

During this period, nearly 700-800 people were shot in a total of 73 municipalities – a trend that clearly shows how serious violence is spreading beyond the big cities.

The police’s own statistics from recent years point to a worsening situation in terms of the number of shootings in Sweden.

Between 2020 and 2024, depending on the source, 698-766 people were shot, of which 235-252 were fatal, according to Aftonbladet’s review and police data – an average of almost one shooting a week.

In 27 of the 100 largest municipalities, there are no recorded shootings, and of these, only five have not reported any gang-related incidents at all.

Criminal networks such as Foxtrot and Dalen-ligan are identified as key actors behind the trend. They fuel conflicts locally and use shootings as a means to take control of territory and illegal markets.

“Expansion war”

According to police commissioner Kristian Malzoff, at the police’s National Operations Department (NOA), it is a strategy to expand influence and establish itself nationally by supporting smaller gangs.

– It’s a kind of expansion war, where the networks compete for local subgroups, Malzoff told Aftonbladet.

Recently, the violence has also affected outsiders. In Fruängen, a teenage boy with no connection to organized crime was killed in 2023 an example of how the danger to civilians increases as shootings become more frequent and more ruthless.

– [The gangs] have had a strategic plan to gain ground by actively supporting one side in conflicts between smaller groups, says Malzoff.

Lack of resources and strategy

Several municipalities have now started sounding the alarm about a lack of resources and are appealing for government support to tackle the situation. Despite local efforts, there is no coherent strategy, making it difficult to counter the expansion of gangs.

Police and experts emphasize the need for national coordination and proposals for stricter laws, increased powers and better intelligence have been put forward but also the importance of preventive measures to prevent recruitment.

The societal consequences are extensive, insecurity is increasing, communities are destabilized and trust in the rule of law is eroding. The Swedish gang problem is no longer a metropolitan phenomenon but a nationwide, complex and urgent issue.

Important to know about the statistics

  • Preliminary data: Police statistics on confirmed shootings are often preliminary at the time of publication and may be revised later if new data are added or if errors are discovered. This is clearly stated on the agency's website.
  • Definition of confirmed shooting: A shooting is considered confirmed if there is physical evidence (e.g. bullets, shell casings or injuries) or at least two independent eyewitnesses. Legal or accidental shootings are not included in the statistics.

Sharp increase in sexual crimes against Swedish children

Deteriorating safety

Published 29 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Police stress that pedophiles are boundless in their behavior and often target even very young children.

A growing number of Swedish children are being pressured or forced to send nude photos online and in just a few years the number of reported cases has increased by over 50 percent.

At the same time, the police believe that there is a very large number of unreported cases and urge more victims to dare to report.

In 2019, 922 cases of child sexual exploitation were reported last year, the police received 1421 reports in the same crime category. In five years, this represents a 54% increase.

The abuse often takes place on Snapchat and other social media that children frequently use, and the police estimate that a large majority of victims never dare to report the crimes.

– Where the children are, there are also the perpetrators, notes Umeå Police Jonas Edin and emphasizes that pedophiles are often experts at grooming children, and that it can go very quickly from the time contact is made to the child being persuaded to send pictures.

The perpetrators use different strategies to get the pictures, from flattery to threats or even pretending to be a child and trying to establish a relationship with the victim. Sooner or later, however, the calls to send undressed pictures come.

Good detection statistics

Police urge parents to keep an eye on what their children are doing online and use the built-in features that allow them to see which users their children are actually communicating with.

Jonas Edin also urges more people to take courage and report if they have been subjected to this type of abuse and points out that the clear-up statistics are good once the crime has come to the attention of the police.

– We often have the opportunity to find a suspect and get a conviction.

Many victims per perpetrator

He also points out that pedophiles are often completely boundless and that they often target even very young children if they see an opportunity.

– If you gave a phone with a chat function to a newborn baby and it could communicate, perpetrators would try to get it to send naked pictures. We know that, he tells state television SVT.

Once an offender has been arrested following a report, it is also very common for the police to find many more victims when going through their accounts and chat logs.

Anyone wishing to report online child sexual abuse can either call the police on 114 14 (Sweden only) or visit a police station. If the crime is ongoing, the emergency number 112 should be contacted instead.

Explosion in Gothenburg raises concern in Swedish football

Deteriorating safety

Published 17 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The image is an archive photo.

During the night to Friday, an explosion occurred in an apartment building on Tegnérsgatan in central Gothenburg. The bombing is believed to be linked to an escalating conflict between gang criminals and a player agency. A player from IFK Göteborg lives in the building but has now been relocated to another address by the club.

According to Göteborgs-Posten, the police’s main theory is that the attack is part of a years-long “agent conflict” involving millions of kronor. The implicated agency, previously linked to the firm Universal, represents not only the IFK player but also players in other Allsvenskan clubs and Swedish national teams.

Schibsted-owned newspaper Aftonbladet reports that the incident has now prompted a reaction from the Swedish football community, and an anonymous Allsvenskan security chief also admits to having been in contact with the police on the matter for some months.

Stefan Dejemyr, head of security at the Swedish Football Association, emphasizes that risk assessments for serious crime are routine, but admits that the scale of recent events has come as a surprise.

– We have been aware of this for some time. It’s part of the risk assessments around our players. But the recent events were more than I knew anything about in detail, says Stefan Dejemyr.

IFK protects the player

IFK Göteborg acted quickly to protect the player, who is reportedly unharmed. The club’s head of security Jonas Arlmark declined to comment, but the move of the player shows that the club is taking the situation seriously.

Previous attacks have targeted agents linked to the same conflict, and Fotbollskanalen reports that gang criminals believe they are entitled to millions from the agency business.

The incident underlines how gang crime in Sweden is increasingly infiltrating sport. Residents in the area describe the blast as powerful, and the police are investigating it as serious criminal damage.

With national team competitions around the corner and several clubs involved, there is growing concern about further violence.

Islamist hired at care home – raped teenage girl and was bought out twice

Deteriorating safety

Published 19 February 2025
– By Editorial Staff
In the fall of 2024, the man is sentenced to six years in prison for the rapes - but the salary payments continue.

For a decade, the notorious Islamist was able to work with vulnerable young people in schools, residential care homes and youth care facilities despite the fact that the Swedish Security Police had kept tabs on the man and prevented him from becoming a security guard.

The man was later convicted of eight rapes against a 17-year-old girl but by then he had already been bought out by two municipalities for a total of around SEK 1 million (€90,000).

In February 2023, the then 30-year-old middle school teacher was arrested by the police after it emerged that he had raped a teenage girl at a residential care home in Örebro where he worked extra with homework help.

During the investigation, Hallsberg municipality suspended the man, but when he was acquitted in the district court and the verdict was appealed to the court of appeal, they chose instead to buy him out for 12 months’ salary about €45,000, according to the state television SVT’s review.

Neither the care home nor the school has done any background check on the man before he was hired and thus does not know that he previously had another name and was identified by the Swedish Security Police (Säpo) as a radical Islamist who expressed support for the Islamic State and was linked to several jihadist groups.

– He is married into a family that is the hub of much of the radical Islamist ideology at this time, says Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism researcher at the Swedish National Defense University.

Bought out – again

In 2018, Säpo put a stop to the Islamist’s plans to become a security guard – but two years later he was still granted a teaching license – because the information from Säpo never reached the Swedish National Agency for Education.

Over the past ten years, the man has worked at six schools, two youth care facilities and one residential care home home – and in the midst of the ongoing rape case, he is employed at a new school – this time in Surahammar municipality.

Too late they realize their mistake and the Islamist is bought out again – this time for about €45,000 in the form of 12 monthly payments.

We think it is inappropriate that he is still working, Mikael Svensson, HR manager at Surahammar municipality, told the channel.

Will not comment

Just weeks later, the now 32-year-old man was also sentenced to six years in prison by the Court of Appeal for raping the teenage girl – but the municipality continued to pay his salary even after the man was jailed.

–  I can’t comment on the individual case, but in general the agreement means salary during an extended notice period, explains the HR manager.

The teenage girl victimized by the man is still in therapy to deal with the trauma she suffered, and representatives of Säpo or the shelter do not want to be interviewed.

When hiring for a position that is not placed in a security class, no register check is carried out, with certain exceptions”, Säpo writes in an email response.

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