By Johan Ahlander
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Nordic countries will increase police cooperation and form a hub in Stockholm in an effort to prevent Sweden's serious gang crime problem from spreading to Norway, Finland and Denmark, the Swedish government said on Wednesday.
Swedish gangs have long been among the most violent in Europe but this year 10 Swedes - over half of them minors - have been charged in Denmark with attempted murder or weapons possession, stirring alarm and harsh criticism in Denmark.
Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told Reuters that in response, Sweden and Denmark would post police officers in each other's countries.
"An important reason for this is to be able to share information between our countries in real time," Strommer said. "Both to be able to identify at an earlier stage which children and young people are at risk of being drawn into these criminal networks, and to prevent it."
In addition, a Nordic hub of police officers from Finland, Norway and Denmark would be set up in Stockholm. Norwegian and Finnish officers are already there, and the Danes would join in a few weeks' time.
Swedish gang members have been hired by Danish gangs for violent attacks on rivals and Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said there were 25 such instances just since April.
He labelled them "child soldiers" and said Sweden had a "sick" culture of violence not wanted in Denmark.
POOR INTEGRATION OF IMMIGRANTS
"The reality right now is that not only Denmark but large parts of the Nordics are feeling the consequences of long-standing failed immigration and legal policies in Sweden, and we take that extremely seriously," Hummelgaard told a news conference on Wednesday.
Strommer said Denmark also bore some responsibility for its own gangs but agreed with much of the criticism regarding Sweden's gang problem.
Sweden for several decades had some of the Western world's most generous immigration policies but has tightened them substantially in recent years after a sharp rise in crime largely blamed on poor integration of immigrants.
Sweden has the highest per-capita rate of gun violence in the European Union. Last year 55 people were shot dead in 363 separate incidents in a country of just 10 million people. By comparison, there were just six fatal shootings in the three other Nordic countries combined.
Police say Swedish gangs have in some instances helped troubled teenagers as young as 14 to bust out of youth homes to carry out contract killings in exchange for new clothes, cash and drugs.
Norway has said Swedish criminal networks are now operating in all parts of the country. The gangs' presence has become more visible, drawn by higher drug prices and less competition, Norwegian police said in a recent letter to the government obtained by Reuters under Norway's freedom of information act.
The EU's open borders have made it easy for criminals to move around the Nordic region, but Denmark tightened surveillance at its Swedish border this summer and began a more active monitoring of passengers arriving by train from Sweden.
Sweden's centre-right government won the 2022 election on a platform of law and order and reduced immigration, and is ruling with support of the far-right Sweden Democrats. The country has taken in over two million people since the start of the millennium; about 20% of the population was born abroad.
(Reporting by Johan Ahlander in Stockholm with additional reporting by Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Terje Solsvik in Oslo; editing by Mark Heinrich)
