Over 67,000 People Linked to Gang Crime in Sweden - Government: 'Serious Situation'

Sweden’s immigration-related gang crime now includes over 67,000 people, according to the police’s new situation report presented on Friday. 17,500 of these are considered to be actively involved in gang crime, while an additional 50,000 are linked to immigrant criminal networks. Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) and National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh describe the situation as very serious.

Friday’s press conference in Stockholm was led by Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) and National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh, who together presented the police’s updated situation report on the immigrant-dominated gang crime in Sweden.

The new survey, developed by the National Operations Department’s intelligence unit, shows that about 17,500 people in the country are actively involved in gang crime. In addition, approximately 50,000 people are assessed to have connections to gang environments – for example, through kinship, socializing, or involvement in minor criminal activities.

So, a total of 67,500 people are in some way part of the gang criminal environment.

No Decrease

“We see that the active gang criminals are almost as many this year as they were last year,” said National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh initially.

When the government’s mandate period is well into its final year, it is forced to acknowledge that the promised paradigm shift in criminal policy is still pending, at least in terms of the effects of politics.

“Groups Are Far Too Large”

At the press conference, the Minister of Justice and the National Police Commissioner only presented selective statistics on the demographic profile of gang crime. Thus, it was stated that 8 out of 10 active gang criminals have Swedish citizenship, but not how many of these have first or second-generation immigrant backgrounds.

Furthermore, it was stated that just under a tenth of active gang criminals have dual citizenship and just over ten percent have only foreign citizenship. They did not delve into which countries in the world dominate the foreign dual and single citizenships.

The average age among gang criminals is 28 years. Strömmer and Lundh praised themselves for the fact that “child soldiers,” i.e., underage gang criminals, have decreased somewhat compared to last year. At the same time, there are figures showing that the average age is decreasing in that group, where as young as 12- and 13-year-olds are recruited for the most serious crimes, including murder.

Gang crime is still dominated by men. But women are coming on strong. Samnytt has previously reported figures from Brå showing that the female group now counts nearly 10,000 people. In the annual report now presented by the National Operations Department, they are listed as 6 percent.

Attributed Higher Figures to “New Measurement Method”

Lundh tried to explain away the higher figures during the press conference by stating that the police have partly started using a new measurement method. But even if one assumes that the situation is constant, the National Police Commissioner had to admit that the situation is still extremely worrying and that a restoration of the rule of law is still distant.

“We do not see any clear indications of either an increase or a decrease, despite this year’s figures appearing to be higher. We can state that the groups of ‘active gang criminals’ and ‘connections to gang crime’ are far too large,” she said.

Lund, however, assured that the Police Authority is “working intensively” to tackle this crime.

Shifted Responsibility to Others

As before, the National Police Commissioner shifted the responsibility for maintaining law and order in society to other social actors and admitted that the Police Authority is not fulfilling the task it is assigned.

“This society-threatening crime cannot only be prosecuted away, but we must also prevent these crimes at an earlier stage and, above all, stop the inflow of children and young people who are willing to take on violent assignments,” she said.

Lundh admitted that Sweden will never be able to investigate and prosecute at the pace required and urged more authorities and social actors to take greater responsibility.

“We in the police will do everything we can to reverse this trend,” she assured, however.

Strömmer: “A Serious Situation”

When Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer spoke at the press conference, he described the police’s report as a confirmation of a continuing serious situation.

“We know that what we do matters, we can see that new working methods and resources are beginning to have an impact,” Strömmer said at the same time, contrasting with what the new figures actually show.

The Minister of Justice pointed to a certain decrease in the number of shootings as a sign of success for the government’s criminal policy. However, the decrease is from an extremely high level and, moreover, temporary. 2025 could, when summarized, on the contrary, be the second worst year ever. In addition, the bombings have increased.

Much Remains

Strömmer acknowledged that much work remains and summarized the government’s strategy in three main points: 1) Crack down on serious violence. 2) Strangle the criminal economy. 3) Break the recruitment of children and young people.

“We will also continue to work to crack down on the top of the gangs who are hiding in other countries,” Strömmer concluded.

An increasingly common phenomenon is that the leaders of the immigrant criminal networks evade Swedish justice by managing the leadership from places in other countries, where they were born and have citizenship from before, or have acquired citizenship through the widespread corruption in those countries.

Watch the entire press conference below.