On Friday, prosecutor Daniel Jonsson confirmed that gang leader Ismail Abdo, also called "Jordgubben", was arrested in Turkey. He has long been a prioritized person for the Swedish police.
Ismail Abdo apparently has a lot of resources, large networks and competencies. Such an actor can give other criminals an opportunity to commit more and more advanced crime, says Gerell to TT.
Replacement can wait
The detention can thus come to weaken the entire network, but there may also be a replacement waiting to take the gang leader's position.
There is some research on removing tops within criminal networks and it is a bit divided. Sometimes it seems to lead to the networks being weakened and sometimes it just leads to someone else taking their place, says Manne Gerell.
When a gang top disappears, new conflicts can also arise within and between different criminal networks.
It can lead to instability in the networks and in turn to more violence. We have seen previous examples of this in Sweden and we cannot rule out that it happens again, says Manne Gerell.
Several serious crimes in Sweden
"Jordgubben" is both detained in his absence and internationally wanted for several serious crimes in Sweden, but the reason for his arrest is due to a Turkish case. This was announced by Mats Berggren, acting deputy head of Noa - the police's national operational division - on Friday.
It's very positive that they have become more successful in the cooperation between Sweden and Turkey, says Manne Gerell.
