Swedish child soldiers

By Lina Kolesnikova – Security and Crisis Management Expert

On 12th of August the Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard warned that Denmark would put pressure on Sweden to contain cross-border gang violence. Particularly, it concerned armed Swedish teenagers acting as child soldiers in criminal turf wars. The Minister called it “a scary phenomenon” that Danish gangs are hiring young Swedes to do “their dirty work”. “There are people sitting as masterminds in the non-western world — in Lebanon, in Dubai, in Iraq — pulling the strings and starting conflicts with each other in Copenhagen. Quite simply, we don’t want to put up with that”, Hummelgaard said.

In social media groups, such as the encrypted Telegram or via other covert channels, “orders” are made for killings or explosions. In one of its post, SVT (Swedish TV channel -LK) has shown, for example, how a “client” is looking for a person who is willing to throw a grenade into a house in Denmark. The payment promised is 30 000 – 40 000 Swedish kroner, corresponding to approximately 19 500 – 26 000 Danish kroner (approximately 2 600 – 3 500 euro – LK).

Since last April, there have been 25 incidents in Denmark, involving teenagers from Sweden hired by criminal gangs in Denmark (data for August 2024 – LK). In one of the latest cases, one of the gang members was killed.

Denmark is not alone suffering from this new phenomenon of cross-border “services” associated with free movement of people across Europe and beyond. Gangs from Sweden got implicated in other criminal incidents occurring in recent months in Norway, Turkey and Iraq.

Denmark has seen a rise in violence on its soil by Swedish gang members in recent months and the trend is a spillover from its northern neighbour which has by far the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the EU.

In August Danish police has begun an active monitoring of passengers arriving by train from Sweden. The Danish government considered to employ facial recognition technology at the Øresund Bridge (the bridge between Denmark and Sweden – LK) to speed up search and investigations that were done manually. Denmark also tightened border controls with Sweden after that surge in shootings. To set faster intelligence gathering and controls, the Minister of Justice announced that Danish police would further intensify their cooperation with the Swedish police by permanently stationing an officer with the Swedish police to ensure even more permanent and effective intelligence cooperation.

Cross-border youngster’s criminal services became a prominent theme attracting attention of politicians in the two countries. Some Danish political parties demanded to introduce a full-scale border control between the two countries. The Minister of Justice believed this measure as unnecessary as there is nothing in these circumstances that suggests, in his opinion, that border control would be an effective tool. On the contrary, he assumed, the resources spent on establishing border control at the Øresund Bridge are far better spent on equipping the police with even more manpower and technology power able to “decrypt” or to “penetrate” the information channels used by criminals. The objective would be to see what is being ordered and who offers what services, and then stop (prevent) the activity before anyone even tries to carry it out. The Minister thinks the adopted anti-gang measures, defined in packages, a good tool to keep gang crime down in Denmark, “so that it does not grow to the unmanageable level that you see in Sweden or the Netherlands”. The latest package – the so-called gang package four – came into force on 1st of July 2024.

According to the assessment by the Danish Ministry of Justice, the latest wave of violence involving Sweden-originated criminal services supply is the out-product of the organized gang LTF (Loyal to Familia) conflicting with another yet unknown network, and both these groups procuring criminal services of Swedish teenagers. Loyal To Familia was judged to be an illegal association by Copenhagen City Court in 2018. The Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2021. However, the group is still active. As in most gang conflicts, the battle for the drug market seems to be central to that conflict.

Swedish child soldiers
EU statistics agency Eurostat reports that 25 people aged 15-24 were killed in gun violence in Sweden in 2021, that is the top two position in the EU only to France, which had 40 such deaths across a population six times the size of Sweden’s. In Sweden, there were cases of children as young as 11 being hired to kill. There were 149 bomb attacks last year in Sweden. Ordinary people are more and more increasingly caught in the crossfire of gangs.

According to the police report last year Sweden has had about 14,000 active gang criminals and an additional 48,000 people loosely affiliated with gangs.
The growing involvement of children and young people into criminal activities in Europe is striking. Sweden continues to make headlines for the last five years as a story of “something went horribly wrong” in the country previously famous for its security and social cohesion. In Uppsala, for example, local police survey had indentified that a quarter of criminal gangs members are younger than 18.

Important fact that demands attention is that both victims and perpetrators are mainly boys and men with foreign background. They are often 2nd and 3rd generation in families who came to Sweden as migrants or refugees mainly from the Middle East, Africa, Afganistan, Turkey and other places. Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson has blamed the rise in organised crime on “naivety” over immigration and an “irresponsible immigration policy and failed integration”.

In regular political debates, some parties attribute the rise of “immigrant” criminality and violence to lack of social support offered to them. But, for the case of Sweden, that does not fly. In that case, there are no socio-economic explanations like absence of social elevators, poor urban areas, unaccesibility of education etc. Sweden is a country with one of the best social welfare systems in the world. The Swedish system provides plenty of opportunities for newcomers to integrate into society. Surprisingly, the Swedish situation shows exactly the opposite, as it is the existing social welfare system that is blamed for an unwilligness of immigrants to build a new life and to integrate in the “normal” activities in the society. So, it looks as if, first, there is not enough “will”, and then, possibly, “explanations” are attached to that lack to turn things around, such as not enough social support, or too much social support, etc.

The lack of “will” is a complex phenomenon combining “no need, it is good enough as it is”, “they (locals) are to be played and are natural victims to be robbed off”, and other discouraging agendas. Largely, the lack of “will” comes from the environment (family, friends, street life, …) in which kids grow. Most young gang members have been on social services’ radar for years.

Second important fact is a popularity of criminal ultra-violent gun crime culture, which is associated with a certain prestige in urban areas with predominately migrant population. Swedish journalists note that “these kids have been trained by criminals — they live, eat and breathe a culture of violence”. “Robin Hood”-isation of criminals, whatever the term might be translated to in the concerned cultures, according to the Swedish police there are more and more children of middle-class families who are involved in criminal activities.

One of the examples would be a high popularity of Snabba Cash TV series among these groups. The series give the charming image of a member of a gang and an exciting life of gang environment. That is particularly true in environments where money is the main driver, and other social bonds are underdeveloped.

Thirdly, legal systems in the EU, and Sweden in particular, are not prepared for under-legal age criminals. Anyone under 15 years old is immune from prosecution in Sweden and cannot be detained by police. Swedish legislation was not designed for gang wars and child soldiers. Gangs now recruit children to carry out contract killings — some younger than 15 — knowing they can’t be jailed. They are paid smaller amounts for contract murder, but at the same time youngsters are given possibilities to move upwards in criminal hierarchies (rite of passage).

There are several reasons why young Swedes might be willing to engage in criminal activities. Firstly, the penalty for murder when you are under 18 is typically four years in Sweden, so they are used to the fact that the consequence is not very great.

Secondly, having committed a murder is associated with prestige, which gives them the opportunity to move up in the gang hierarchy. It is an example of how to quickly obtain capital by aligning with violent forces. Something that has great value in the gang environment.

Finally, would be the fact that getting involved in criminal gang assures social bonds to a group of people, i.e., the status of being part of something. Youngsters have more protest in their blood than wisdom and combining that with no or weaker social bonds in the regular society, lead to teenagers become more violent more easily easier, with less convincing needed.

Children and teenagers in criminal groups of Europe
Powerful criminal gangs often use children to commit murders because they receive lenient sentences.

Criminal organisations actively use children under 14 as drug runners (or, in extreme cases, as killers) because minors are immune from prosecution. On January 15 2018, around 2,000 people took to the streets of Naples to protest against a wave of violent attacks by gangs of youths, many of who were minors.

Italian police and prosecutors have been successful in prosecuting and jailing members of organised crime; as a result, these organisations have searched for new opportunities in recruitment.

This is nothing new – child soldiers have been routinely recruited or coerced to fight, most notably in Africa. But the latest novelty is that children are being allowed to reach higher ranks in criminal groups.

Due to a lack of responsibility from families and no perception of responsibility to society and country, youngsters are often left to learn from whatever is around, and more extremist and criminal activists take advantage.

In conclusion, cross-border services (private armies, mercenaries, criminals …) have become a reality.

However, the current situation in Scandinavian countries is very interesting. We have seen several cases of hot disputes over the situation of Schengen internal borders before (France vs Italy, Switzerland vs France and Italy, Germany vs Poland etc) but they are all about illegal migrants. This is a first time we see that inability of one EU state to cope with its internal security issues forcing its neighbour state to reflect on border protection. It is easy to suggest that we might see more and more similar discussions in future.