Bjørnland says at a press conference in Oslo together with national police chief Anders Thornberg that Swedish gang criminals act cross-border to an increased extent.
— Over time, Sweden has seen a serious development with organized crime, but a negative development is also visible in Norway.
— In recent years, the activity of Swedish gang criminals on Norwegian soil has increased, among other things by hiring them to carry out acts of violence in Norway.
Individuals
The police authorities in Norway and Sweden must now strengthen their cooperation, among other things by sharing intelligence information, knowledge and experiences to a greater extent. It can be about information on an individual level, according to Benedicte Bjørnland.
“It will be down to individuals and networks,” she says.
National Police Chief Anders Thornberg says that Sweden stands out in terms of fraud, shootings and explosions, but in recent years we have also become a bit of a hub for narcotics.
— Crime knows no borders, they operate in the country where there is the most money to be made.
“Sweden has big problems, but there could be big problems in Norway too if we don’t work together,” he says.
New police station
The operational work along the long Norwegian-Swedish border is to be strengthened.
Among other things, a new police station is to be built in Eda municipality in Värmland, where one half of the building is to be located in Norway and the other half in Sweden.
Finland has also discovered how Swedish gang criminals appeared there, according to Thornberg.
The most important thing to overcome crime is to stop new recruitment, he says.
— The most important thing to get at this is to stop the recruitment. Use all the good forces in society to stop this.