Denmark is strengthening its border controls with neighbouring Sweden following a string of violent crimes involving Swedish gangs in the Danish capital.
The police are increasing their inspections on trains crossing the Øresund Bridge that connects Copenhagen with Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city.
Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark’s justice minister, said that more resources to monitor car traffic on the road crossing would also be implemented.
He said: “We are increasing surveillance, in part to increase security, but also to prevent hired Swedish child soldiers who come to Copenhagen to carry out tasks in connection with gang conflicts.”
Denmark’s Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard said they are “increasing surveillance” across the Øresund Bridge
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Hummelgaard’s statement followed the arrest of two Swedish nationals in relation to an explosion in Copenhagen the day before which marked the fourth case in less than a week involving armed perpetrators from across the bridge.
The other cases involved three separate shootings in Copenhagen linked with “Swedish youth”.
According to the justice minister, there had been 25 incidents since April where criminals hired what he called Swedish “child soldiers” to commit crimes in Denmark.
Swedish police say powerful criminal migrant gangs are using children to commit murders as they will receive lighter sentences.
According to Swedish officials, drug gangs, which are often led by second-generation immigrants now living outside the country, have infiltrated the legal and welfare systems.
The Danish minister said: “There are people sitting as masterminds in the non-western world — in Lebanon, in Dubai, in Iraq — pulling the strings and starting conflicts with each other in Copenhagen. Quite simply, we don’t want to put up with that.”
Sweden has suffered from growing gang violence in the past decade largely involving fights between criminal street gangs of a migrant background – with civilians being caught in the crossfire.
This week, the Swedish police arrested a 13-year-old suspect after a shooting injured a 25-year-old man in central Malmö early Sunday evening.
Because of his age, the suspect was handed over to social services as Swedish law considers anyone under 15 a child. This means they cannot be tried in courts but social services decide what “support and care” is needed.
Sweden went from being a country in Europe with the lowest rate of fatal shootings to one of the highest with 363 shooting incidents recorded and 55 people shot dead in 2023 with a slight decrease from almost 400 registered in 2022.
The Øresund Bridge links Sweden and Denmark
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In comparison, there were only six fatal shootings in the three other Nordic countries combined.
Denmark takes a tougher approach to immigration than their Swedish neighbour leading some Swedish politicians in Stockholm to suggest copying Copenhagen’s tactics.
Some suggestions have included doubling punishment for crimes and forcibly moving non-Danes from areas where they are in a majority.
On Wednesday, the Swedish government said Nordic countries are increasing police cooperation and forming a hub in Stockholm to tackle the problem spreading to Norway and Finland as well as Denmark.
Sweden and Denmark are posting police officers in each other’s countries to “share information between our countries in real time,” the Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer confirmed.
Source Agencies
