Yet Swedish Customs staff are conspicuous by their absence - the authority cannot even be present half the time traffic flows through the high-risk port.
The biggest problem is that we do not have customs officers at the border when the goods pass through, says Niklas Delin, group manager at the Swedish Customs Administration.
A passenger ship from Świnoujście, Poland, is heading towards the port of Ystad. Customs officers are out manning the lanes, where trucks, cars and pedestrians will pass.
We have to let it go, Niklas says to his colleague Linda about a lane, because his group is not large enough to keep track of all the lanes.
Low attendance
While Customs staff are aware of the high risk of smuggling at the port of Ystad, they must prioritise. The agency states that staff are present approximately one-third of the time that traffic passes through the port.
This is what the staffing situation looks like at several border crossings this year - especially in Skåne - according to the authority.
In the south are our largest high-risk ports and Ystad is one of them, but we are not numerous enough to have satisfactory staffing there, says Stefan Granath, deputy head of department at the Swedish Customs Administration.
The authority is instead sending staff around Skåne. The question is why Swedish Customs does not prioritise having staff at the port of Ystad, if that is where the amphetamine risks flowing in?
It is not considered to be the port with the highest threat and Ystad is sometimes overlooked, says Stefan Granath, who believes that the focus needs to be on, for example, the ports of Helsingborg and Trelleborg.
Needs to grow for several years
A total of almost 175 kilos of amphetamine were seized in Sweden during the first six months of the year, a decrease compared to the previous six months. 39.3 percent of the amphetamine seizures took place in the port of Ystad. The statistics can increase significantly with just one large seizure when the authority has time to be present at a border station.
It may be that we check a truck and find a larger batch, says Niklas Delin.
In the government's spring budget, the Swedish Customs Administration received 100 million more than its normal allocation, which means that 24 more customs officers will be able to be hired this fall for training in the southern region.
It's a good addition, but in the long term we need to grow for several years in a row. This was a one-time investment, says Stefan Granath.
During the first half of 2026, Swedish Customs seized approximately 174.5 kilos of amphetamine, of which almost 68.6 kilos were seized in the port of Ystad and 71.1 kilos in total in Skåne County. The southern region has several high-risk ports, partly due to drug smuggling.
After record seizures of over 4 million drug tablets in the first six months of 2024, the numbers have been lower in the country, although seizures made so far this year are over two million.
In the first half of 2026, approximately 2.7 million drug tablets were seized in Sweden, of which 2.3 million were seized in Skåne.
Drugs that enter via the southern region are sold both within Sweden and to other actors in Europe.
Source: Swedish Customs.
