Warring drug gangs turn up the heat on Sweden’s government

SÖDERTÄLJE, Sweden — A person dressed all in black hurled a hand grenade into a shop in the crime-ridden suburb of Geneta in the Swedish city of on Södertälje on July 22. Several bystanders were injured and one woman in her 50s had to be airlifted to the hospital.

Only a day later, a man was shot and injured on a street nearby.

The spate of gang violence is all part of a brutal summer that spells trouble for Sweden’s government.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and his right-wing allies edged an election two years ago promising to end a decade of spiraling clashes between drug runners. 

But the crime statistics make for chilling reading in a country of 10.5 million whose international image is one of a peaceful, successful nation with a competitive economy and strong welfare protections.

But midway through its mandate, it’s clear Kristersson’s government still has work to do. There have been 148 shootings in Sweden this year so far that have killed 20 and injured 26. In 2023, there were a total of 53 gun deaths. The year prior had 62 such killings.

“Things can’t continue like this,” said Tony Aoun, a 17-year-old student out shopping in Geneta. “This has always been a strong community to be part of, but this violence has to stop.” 

Sweden has emerged as a cautionary tale of a European country that failed to recognize an emerging threat from internationally linked drug gangs. It is now scrambling to react to an escalation in violence as those gangs wage war on each other for control of lucrative local narcotics markets. 

The Nordic state has among the highest rates of shooting deaths in Europe, while scores of Swedish gang members have died over recent years.

As the violence becomes less discriminate, a growing number of bystanders have also been killed and injured by stray gunfire and vaguely targeted bombings. 

The Kristersson government’s policy of crackdown includes extending sentences for gun crime and is considering lowering the age at which children can be punished for crimes.  

But arguably its most eye-catching policy initiative has been the rollout of so-called security zones.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and his right-wing allies edged an election two years ago promising to end a decade of spiraling clashes between drug runners. | Claudio Bresciani/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images

A new law in place since April allows police to designate any area where they believe violence is imminent as a security zone. They can then stop and search any citizen within that zone — something they wouldn’t normally be able to do unless they suspect that citizen of committing a crime. 

Sweden’s first security zone was set up in the central town of Norrköping after a double gangland hit there in June. The second was established in Geneta after an execution-style murder in an apartment stairwell there in early July.

Short-lived peace

The Geneta zone ran for two weeks from July 6 in an area around a row of small shops. During a visit while the zone was in operation, the shops appeared quiet. There was a visible police presence and signs said surveillance drones were overhead. Police also said they had plainclothes officers working in the area. 

Some shoppers said they found the police stop-and-search policy intrusive, worrying it could damage the authorities’ relations with the public. 

Others said it was helpful and should be extended, and further repressive measures imposed. They worried the violence would come back as soon as the police wound down the zone. 

Such worries proved well founded. Only two days after the security zone ended, the grenade attack on the shop took place. Police suspect it was part of a broader conflict between local gangs, and two teenagers were arrested in connection with the blast. 

When a young man was shot in a street nearby the next day, two other teenagers were also arrested in connection with that attack. 

The mayor of Södertälje, Boel Godner, appeared on the national evening news and spoke of the anguish gripping her town. 

“This is a serious situation,” she said. “People are upset and angry, angry that their town is being associated with these criminals.”

A spike in gang-related killings over recent years has seen Sweden move against a general trend of falling violence noted across much of the rest of Europe.

Experts say the government must demonstrate progress before the next election in 2026, with surveys showing it remains a top issue for voters. 

“If crime reduction remains high on the political agenda … voters are likely to punish the government, given that crime reduction has been a key plank of the policy program,” said Jonas Hinnfors, a political scientist at Gothenburg University. 

Opinion polls currently show the Social Democrat-led opposition is ahead of the government and allies by around 7 percentage points.

Södertälje Mayor Godner, a Social Democrat, said no one policy measure would be enough to crack the gangs, who have been growing stronger in towns like hers for years. 

She called for more national and international inter-agency coordination to target gang leaders and their assets, involving not only police but the tax office, customs and the financial crimes agency. 

“When crime is national or even international, the response to it must also be so,” she said. 

Aoun, the student in Geneta, agreed that initiatives like the security zone in his area should be part of a bigger and sustained crackdown. 

“It is good, but it is not enough,” he said. “The criminals just take their shit to nearby streets and come back when the police are gone.”