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Deputy Chief of the National Police Mats Löfving drew attention when he said in Ekot’s interview on Saturday that there are 40 family-based crime family networks in Sweden. For Mikael Damberg, (S), it was nothing new. He says he learned about the many criminal networks himself when he became interior minister in early 2019.
Some of these networks must have existed in Sweden for decades. How has she been able to get so far, why has she not acted before?
– All gang crime has had to take hold. The police have not been present in the poorer residential areas, so criminals have had to spread both through drug sales and other commercial activities. Now we are rolling back the state, both with a growing police force and with other efforts by municipalities and authorities, he says.
Various authorities, including the Swedish Revenue Agency, the Swedish Migration Agency and the Swedish Public Employment Service, collaborate with the police to flag offenders and examine tax debts, business activities and registration information of the population.
The deputy chief of the National Police, Mats Löfving.
Photo: Johan Nilsson / TT
Löfving claims that these networks came to Sweden for the purpose of organizing the crime. Do you agree with that image?
– The police have qualified that image a bit. Many have been here for quite some time and have become professional criminals in these structures. I don’t care how or when they came here, they commit criminal activity, you have to put them there. But children who grow up in these environments are brought up straight into a criminal lifestyle. I don’t think society has seen this and our legislation has not been designed to be able to intervene as soon as necessary to prevent children from directly engaging in serious criminal activities.
For several years, the police have called for greater responsibility on other actors to stop the new recruitment of young people into criminal networks. Police representatives target schools, social services and youth psychiatry, among other things, but according to Mats Löfving, the commitment of both politicians and authorities and municipalities becomes “yo-yo” according to the force of media pressure.
Has the rest of society closed its eyes?
– The rest of the community moved out of these residential areas and had to live their own parallel lives. Now the state is moving and marking its presence. It is dangerous for a society where certain suburban areas are allowed to become so segregated. You can’t skip the segregation effect when looking at why these gangs or clans have gained so much power. They would not have had it in a society where the State is present.
Mats Löfving wants the government to propose with secret interception also people who are not suspected of crimes. What is your answer?
– I need to know more about how the police think and what motives they have. We have made several changes that have given the police stronger powers to work with coercive measures.
Since 2018, the police have pursued the issue of visiting areas, which are used against gangs in Denmark, among other places. How is the government?
– Our assessment so far has been that the police have powerful powers to search for weapons, drugs and can make visits. The major legal problems have been the home search, access to certain spaces to search for weapons and drugs. We have an investigation to analyze that.
Read more: Clans need to know who decides
