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On Tuesday, National Police Chief Anders Thornberg was called to the Riksdag’s Justice Committee to answer questions about family criminal networks recently brought to attention by Deputy Police Chief Mats Löfving.
– When you participate in the description, it is clear that it is the mafia. Systematic and ingrained at different levels of society, says Johan Forssell, spokesman for legal policy for the moderates.
At the meeting, the Chief of the National Police called a better protection for officials and decision makers in the municipalities where these criminal networks are located. These can be grant officers, building permit officers, and people who work in social services and are exposed to threats. He wants these groups to be protected by special legislation.
It considers that municipalities should take various measures to avoid impacts and threats to personnel. Anders Thornberg highlights an example from Köping where the municipal police have weekly meetings together with the municipal security coordinator.
– You have to train your staff and you have to build a security organization that is good enough, he says.
He urged politicians and that the authorities are attentive to fraud linked to organized crime. Both in terms of grants in general and linked to state support that politicians decided on due to the corona pandemic.
– You have to control more. Even if you can investigate the crimes, the money will not be returned. Having the correct payment model is important, he says, noting that various authorities are currently working to increase control, Thornberg says.
President of the Justice Committee Fredrik Lundh Sammeli, (S), says after the meeting that they also discussed how the parties can ensure that they are not infiltrated by people belonging to a criminal network.
– There is a common will among the parties that we obtain the information we need so as not to open the doors to politics, he says.
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has said he became aware of the reach of the networks, some 40 according to police, only when Löfving spoke about it in Saturday’s interview in early September.
According to the Chief of the National Police, the police continually informed the government about family-based criminal networks.
– There are already reports from 2014, a couple from 2017, 2018 and 2019. We have informed both transparency councils and sent reports. More specifically, we did it now when Mats Löfving spoke.
