High school youth in Uppsala have received targeted offers to commit serious acts of violence in exchange for a “very large sum of money”.
– We have never seen an offer targeted to a certain group of young people in this concrete way, says Magnus Jansson Klarin, press spokesperson at the police in Region Mitt.
The police received the tip on Friday from a school in Uppsala and since then they have been working intensively on the case. With an upcoming autumn holiday, the police are concerned that the information reaches guardians.
– It is very important that guardians are made aware that this has happened and we ask them to talk to their children and be vigilant.
– It is perhaps bad timing to release information like this on a Friday night, but we feel that this has to be released here and now for crime prevention purposes. We have a holiday ahead of us, says Jansson Klarin.
A suspect
Now the police have started a preliminary investigation regarding preparation for murder and they currently have a suspect.
But Magnus Jansson Klarin cannot go into whether it is a person deprived of liberty or not.
– We of course suspect that there are connections to the ongoing wave of violence, but we do not know which networks it is connected to.
If the offer has been sent out to high school youth in other parts of the country, the Uppsala police have not had time to investigate yet. And you also don’t know if anyone has taken up the offer.
Even girls
– It is well known that more and more young people are being recruited and carry out serious acts of violence, but we have never seen such a concrete offer to a certain group of young people before, says Jansson Klarin and continues:
– It is also important to point out that it is easy to believe that this is aimed only at boys. But now we see that younger girls and women are also exploited. Therefore, it is important to talk to your children regardless of whether it is a girl or a boy.
The offer has reached the young people via social media, but the police call for vigilance regarding all apps where you can communicate, including games.