Now both the Norwegian and Swedish Ministers of Justice are speaking out following the Norwegian police’s alarm about Swedish gangs in Northern Norway.
– I am very satisfied that the police have uncovered this network in Tromsö, says Norwegian Minister of Justice Emilie Mehl to TV2.
The police in Tromsö in northern Norway announced on Wednesday that they had seen that local youths had quickly taken the step from less serious crime to committing increasingly serious crimes in collaboration with the Swedish gangs.
– We assess that the Swedish criminal networks constitute the biggest criminal threat in the Tromsö police district, says police inspector Yngve Myrvoll.
A worrying development.
– We have examples of young people taking the step from youth crime to becoming heavily involved with central actors in the Swedish criminal networks.
Cracked encrypted chats and searches during the spring have led to eight people being arrested in the city, suspects in a larger tangle where the police seized drugs, cash and weapons.
Will lift at meeting
Now Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) is commenting on the Norwegian police’s alarm in a text message to TV4 Nyheterna:
“Sweden has a very close collaboration with Norway. We also already know that gang criminals operate in several countries at the same time, within the Nordics and the EU. Therefore, as early as tomorrow, I will once again raise with my European justice minister colleagues that we must advance our positions substantially,” he writes.
His Norwegian colleague Emilie Mehl believes that the cooperation with Sweden works well.
– I am very pleased that the police have uncovered this network in Tromsö; that they have cooperated with the Swedish police to get an overview of the fact that here it has actually been young adults who have worked with specific people in Swedish networks, she tells TV2.
Risk of more violence
In Tromsö, the police see an increased risk that the Swedish involvement leads to an increase in the general level of violence in the city.
– Locally in Tromsö, we are of course concerned when we see that Swedish actors are so involved. We fear that local actors here arm themselves to a greater extent and use more knives, for example. We fear that it may be a response to the Swedish capital of violence that exists.