It is clear that last summer's wave of Swedish child soldiers, as I call them, was very violent. But unfortunately, the phenomenon of "violence and crime as a service" has become a widespread method, says Peter Hummelgaard (S) to TT.
He notes that there is a broad recruitment base of young Swedes who are willing to let themselves be hired to commit violent crimes, such as shootings, bombings and attempted murders.
It is still a big problem in Denmark, but also problematic that Danish criminals use them. We are working to combat this with all the methods we can, he says.
Contract killings
In 2024, it was about at least 38 cases of young Swedes who traveled to Denmark to commit serious crimes for payment. The majority of the cases involved contract killings, according to a compilation made by Danish TV2.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the EU's justice and migration ministers meet in Copenhagen. Denmark has just taken over the presidency of the EU's Council of Ministers and during the next half year, they will focus on combating organized crime - also what happens online. This applies to both the recruitment of young people on social media and the communication of criminals in encrypted apps.
More legal avenues are needed to access data, and for that, legislative changes are needed at the EU level, says Peter Hummelgaard.
The Swedish police also demand changes to the data legislation to have better opportunities for information gathering about criminals.
The next step
According to the Danish minister, the EU Commission is preparing to submit legislative proposals with the aim of improving the police's and authorities' ability to legally access encrypted messages.
There is no doubt that the police are lagging behind. We have skilled police in both Sweden and Denmark, but for every day that passes, the better the technology becomes, the better tools the criminals get, says Hummelgaard.
