Sweden’s organised crime groups that are already notorious for their violent acts as well as their clout keep shocking the rest of the world. A once-peaceful and prosperous Nordic country has turned into a battleground for various crime syndicates represented by ethnic minorities. To make matters worse, they are actively using minors to perpetrate the offences. Why do the law enforcement seem powerless to tackle it?
Underage hitmen have become an alarming recent trend shattering the trademark urban serenity in Sweden. Seasoned gangsters have been hiring minors to perpetrate dozens and even hundreds of bone-chilling vendettas. The media and the officials refer to these teenage killers as ‘child soldiers’, alluding to the notorious Italian and US mobsters.
The Z Mark
The problem grabbed the broad media spotlight in the wake of two shockingly violent episodes. The police ran into the bodies of the two teenagers, 14-year-old Mohamad and Layth, in Jordbro, a suburban locality in Stockholm County. Both boys had gone missing months earlier. The double homicide was linked to the teenagers botching their hit assignments. This theory arose from the letter Z cut into the lifeless body of Mohamad. The symbol has been used by Zeronätverket (literally ‘Network Zero’), a Stockholm-based gang.
In Helsingborg, the law enforcement found a parked vehicle with a gunned-down driver inside. The authorities were quick to identify and apprehend the 16-year-old killer whose lack of experience led to him failing to get rid of the handgun he had used to fire three lethal shots at his victim. The investigators later concluded that it had been a ‘premeditated execution-style murder’.
The second case was tried behind the closed doors, citing the defendant’s age. It was not until the sentencing that the wider public found out the sobering details of the crime. The perpetrator, it turned out, was a contract killer.
The hit, it was revealed, was ordered by the mobster named Orhan Demaj, 26. He commissioned the crime to the teenager who, according to his school teachers, was a ‘bright kid whenever he felt being one’. He had dabbled in football and played music before he got into videos, which landed him in debt and searching for money. Demaj handed him a phone, a firearm, some bullets, a bicycle and a change of clothes. After that, the fledgeling hitman was trained by a more experienced ‘mentor’, 20-year-old Burak Burkan.
Although the four defendants refused to plead guilty, the prosecutors made an airtight case positively linking the quartet to the brutal homicide. Demaj was sentenced to life imprisonment. One of the charges was implicating a minor in organised crime. Burkan was handed a 15-year prison sentence, whereas the hitman himself wound up slapped with a four-year stint in a mandatory correctional school to undergo ‘inpatient treatment’. The killer’s friend and accomplice will serve a three-year stint at the same facility.
The juvenile delinquents’ names or ethnicity have never been disclosed. But going by the available footage, these may be the children of immigrants. However, both in Sweden and Denmark, these underage hitmen have earned a media sobriquet ‘Swedes’.
Misplaced Valour
The media has repeatedly reported on a recent spate of violent crimes committed by ethnic minorities in Sweden. Most seem to agree that Sweden can longer be considered a safe country. But things are even taking a turn for the worse. The official figures point to the distressing fact that the local organised crime involves at least 30,000 individuals, with an average age in steep decline.
‘The Nordic country has gone from having one of the lowest levels of fatal shootings in Europe to one of the highest in just a decade,’ says a Financial Times article. ‘Well-established criminal gangs, largely run by second-generation immigrants, are no longer just killing each other but increasingly relatives and, in the case of Saad and others, innocent bystanders. Many of the perpetrators are children as young as 14 who are groomed by gangs to carry out hits.’
The Swedish gangs have earned notoriety not just for their ruthlessness but also for the unconventional tactics they resort to. Using underage hitmen is one of those. The kingpins gravitate to this demographic for two major reasons.
One is the teens’ immaturity and penchant for playing video games making it easier for them to psych up for an unlawful act. Many of them are drawn by a luring opportunity to move up the pecking order, including an underworld hierarchy, as they are hearing tall tales of the kingpins’ wealth and clout. Secondly, unlike an adult criminal, a juvenile offender will only face a several-year stint in a correctional school.
In the first seven months of 2023 alone, some 42 criminal probes were launched into the youths having committed a crime or attempted one, an uptick from a total of 38 launched in the 12 months of 2022. ‘The number of violent juvenile delinquents is on the rise. This is certainly a very sad and daunting development,’ prosecutor Carl Mellberg said in his remarks to Radio Sweden.
A year on, things have only grown murkier. Between early January and late July of 2024, 93 minors were suspected of attempted murder or incitement to violence.
‘This is madness’
The media of neighbouring Denmark and Norway has been showing a marked interest in the Swedish ‘child soldiers’, which is understandable as new gangs are cropping up at a rate that suggests they might soon spill over. Their fierce territorial disputes have recently redefined ferocity. Most of these kids are being used to gun down rival gangsters.
Since they are seemingly running out of space in their home country, they may well cross into the nearby states. Swedish crime syndicates have already snuck their way into Denmark and Norway, while the local media is warning the public of an imminent threat.
In 2023, a shooting at a busy underground station in Farsta, a suburb south of Stockholm, led to two individuals, including a 15-year-old boy, getting mowed down. In the aftermath of the deadly incident, Norway’s Aftenpost reached Manne Gerell, an associate professor of criminology at Malmö University, for comment. The researcher said: ‘Young people are being targeted at an increasing rate. We have 15-year-olds firing automatic rifles and 15-year-olds on the receiving end of the gunshots. This is madness.’
‘They want to come across as cool blokes and high-income earners. And they do attain this status by committing contract killings,’ the scholar added.
A Danish TV channel revealed the price tags Swedish ‘child soldiers’ are lured by. A gunshot to the head or a hand grenade attack roughly costs between €26,000 and €44,000. ‘Our local gangs are hiring Swedish child soldiers to commit their crimes. This trend is deeply disturbing, and so is the fact it is unfolding in Denmark,’ said Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark’s justice minister. Recently, he spoke to the country’s police authorities to negotiate a tighter control of individuals crossing the Øresund Bridge connecting Denmark with Sweden.
By the way, the Danish law suggests harsher sentences to members of the organised crime groups – and those apply to everyone over 15 years of age. According to Peter Svarrer, Denmark’s deputy police chief, the local criminals are offering hit jobs to the Swedish ‘soldiers’ online. ‘The young men aged 14 to 15 seem to have no reason to take up arms or throw hand grenades. This is insanity, and I am bemused by their willingness to do so,’ he asserts.