Public Prosecutor Daniel Jonsson confirms to Ekot at Sveriges Radio that Ismail Abdo is the person who has been arrested in Turkey.
He is detained in absentia in Sweden, and if he appears in Sweden, there will be a detention hearing where he will be brought before the court where the court will examine the suspicions, says Jonsson to Ekot.
The public prosecutor does not want to comment further on what has led to the arrest of Abdo.
But we have internationally searched for him and worked to get him home for some time now, he says to Ekot.
The police wrote earlier on Friday in a press release that a "Swedish instigator" has been arrested in Turkey. The arrested person is suspected of serious narcotics crimes and instigation of serious violent crimes in Sweden.
"Starting to yield results"
The arrest is the result of a long and targeted effort in cooperation between Turkish and Swedish police, according to Mats Berggren, acting deputy head of Noa.
Swedish police have good, close international cooperation with many countries, and Turkey is one of them, he explains.
We see that we are getting more and more people abroad who affect the Swedish problem picture. We have deprived more people of their freedom this year than we did last year. It is the international work that we are putting a lot of effort into that is starting to yield results.
Abdo is said to be one of 19 suspects who have been arrested in the major operation carried out by security forces in several cities in Turkey.
He will not be extradited to Sweden because he is a Turkish citizen, writes the Prosecution Authority in a press release.
How the arrest can affect gang crime in Sweden, Mats Berggren cannot comment on.
It is difficult to say so early on, but we will evaluate it continuously.
Several crimes in Sweden
Ismail Abdo is suspected of several serious crimes in Sweden, and since the Foxtrot conflict escalated in 2023, Ismail Abdo has been one of the most prioritized people to arrest for the Swedish police.
As recently as the spring of 2024, Abdo was arrested in connection with a traffic check in Turkey. That time, he was released on bail - despite being internationally wanted by Sweden.
In the spring of this year, he was detained for the second time in his absence by a Swedish court, this time for having organized the receipt and transport of 1.3 tons of cocaine that was seized by the Customs Authority in the spring of 2024 in Nynäshamn.
Abdo is wanted in Sweden for several narcotics crimes and for instigation of attempted murder.
Corrected: In an earlier version, one of the crime classifications was incorrect.
"The Strawberry" Ismael Abdo was previously closely allied with the Foxtrot network and its leader Rawa Majid from Uppsala. They engaged in extensive narcotics smuggling to Sweden for several years.
Between 2021 and 2023, the network was involved in at least four separate conflicts with other gangs, including the Dalen network in southern Stockholm.
In the summer of 2023, an internal split occurred within the network, resulting in a bloody conflict between individuals in Foxtrot. Among other things, Ismail Abdo's mother was murdered in her home outside Uppsala.
Ismail Abdo later became a leader in a new, rival network that is known to the police as Rumba.
Another of the leading figures in the conflict was shot dead in Iraq's capital Baghdad in early 2024.
Source: Police National Operational Department (Noa), TT
