€13,000 per person – these were the sums paid to three young men in Sweden to commit three murders, German public media ZDF reported. Alleged members of the criminal gang are facing trial. A 16-year-old boy and two of his friends have been charged with the murder of a man and two women. The guarantor, according to the police, is a gang leader.
Daylight murders
In Sweden recently, murders have also been committed in broad daylight, such as on April 10, writes the German public media and points to the following example: 39-year-old Mikael Janitsky was killed in an underpass in front of his 12-year-old son, with whom went to the pool. The whole country is shaken by the increasing violence, and the sister of the murdered Aneta Demir summarizes: “I have the feeling that the criminal clans have taken power, and we seem to have to comply with them”. The woman also expresses the opinion that the punishments for criminals are not serious enough.
Drugs were often sold in the underpass through which the father and son passed, and the father probably sought an account of this from several young men. Police have recently detained an 18-year-old youth of Iraqi origin, suspected of the murder, during which he was 17 years old. There is no further information about the investigations for now, reports ZDF.
Not just a problem of the suburbs
For a long time, violence by youth gangs was considered a phenomenon in the so-called problem neighborhoods in the big Swedish cities, where mostly migrants live, the German public-law media also points out. But in the meantime, violence is everywhere. Statistically, in recent years, almost every day in Sweden, one person has died from gun violence. In relation to the number of the population, this is a record level that cannot be found anywhere else in Europe.
ZDF cites other statistics which show that since the 1990s, the number of murders has been decreasing throughout Western Europe. But not in Sweden, where this indicator is the highest in Europe. In 2022, for example, one person was shot almost every week. According to the police, last year there were 388 incidents involving firearms, 62 people died and over 100 were injured. In the same period of time, four people were shot dead in Denmark and Norway, and in Finland – two. As the “Wall Street Journal“ in the capital Stockholm the murder rate per capita is 30 times higher than in London.
Criminal gangs and spectacular actions
Members of criminal gangs in Sweden are thought to be around 30,000. According to Daniel Westerhav of the Council for the Prevention of Violence, quoted by ZDF, the acts of violence are deliberately spectacular. “We call this capital of intimidation, designed to strengthen reputation and maintain position in criminal circles,” says the crime expert.
Behind the clans with their often young, not yet subject to judicial sanctions, is organized crime, according to the Swedish police. “These gangs attract young people with lots of money and expensive cars,” policeman Saman Assad told ZDF. But in the end, the youth of the clans are forced to fear for their lives.
"We were too naive"
"We were just too naive,", lawyer and best-selling author Jens Lapidus, who has gathered enough impressions of young gang members as a defense attorney in the courtroom, tells ZDF. “When so many people came to our country, we thought they would adapt to our system and behave well.“ Statistics from the 2018 Bra Institute, however, show that the criminal record among those youth whose parents were born abroad is three times higher than among those whose parents were born in Sweden.
More cameras, more police, tougher laws
The state responded with more measures, but the right-wing Sweden Democrats, who support the minority government, are pushing for tougher measures. “The problem will not be solved through integration,” says the party spokesman Richard Jomshof. “Migration must be reduced to a much greater extent, and those who do not want to become a productive part of our society must be repatriated.“ The German public-law media notes that, meanwhile, even the police have been infiltrated by crime. There were about 30 employees who over the years supplied the clans with information about planned actions and wiretapping.
Author: Claas Thomsen ZDF