Six Swedes are charged in a major international drug bust.
They are suspected of having smuggled 290 kilos of cocaine by sailboat from Brazil to Spain.
– Our investigation clearly shows how the wave of violence going on in Sweden is connected to power struggles over very large sums that crime can generate, in this case from drugs, says Sofie Holmqvist at the police.
Two of the six indicted Swedish citizens are a 58- and 69-year-old coxswain and sailor, respectively. They are suspected of having sailed from Turkey to Brazil and received 290 kilos of cocaine on the boat.
They are said to have then transported the drug load to the coast of Spain and distributed the drugs to smaller boats.
Another of the defendants is described as “Head of Sweden” after having had a leading role for people who acted in Sweden. In what is described as a business-like form, he has handed out assignments, and the drug business is said to have had “different branches”.
– One branch has been the transport of cocaine. Another branch has been based in Sweden with the sale of narcotics, which can be compared to a wholesale company that sells to other criminal networks. What makes the case unique is that we have obtained a very clear picture of how systematically the crime is structured, says senior prosecutor Sara Nilsson, who is the head of the preliminary investigation.
Cooperation with other countries
All six defendants are suspected of having been involved in cocaine smuggling from Brazil to Europe in various ways. Swedish police have collaborated with the Customs and several authorities in both Europe and Brazil to break up the entire “supply chain”: from the organizers who are abroad and negotiate with drug cartels in South America, to the executors who sell narcotics to the customers.
– In order to succeed in the fight against the criminal networks, we must expose those who organize the transport of narcotics to Sweden. We have now done this through in-depth cooperation with police and prosecutors, says Kristian Johansson, head of unit at the Swedish Customs Service’s criminal department East.