Denmark, Sweden announce joint crackdown on gang crime

PRAGUE

The justice ministers of Denmark and Sweden on Wednesday announced joint measures to crack down on organized gang crime following a series of violent incidents in Denmark, allegedly involving Swedish youth, the Danish state news media outlet DR reported.

The Danish and Swedish justice ministers, Peter Hummelgaard and Gunnar Strommer, respectively, made the announcement at a press conference in Copenhagen.

“We are unfortunately well aware that gang violence knows no borders. Our response must therefore be strong and coordinated,” Hummelgaard said.

The ministers confirmed that under the agreement, both neighboring countries will enhance information-sharing mechanism to prevent recruitment of young people into criminal gangs.

They have also agreed to strengthen their coordination with third countries to extradite gang leaders who are at large, the ministers noted.

The aim would be to extradite more criminals to Denmark and Sweden so that “criminal masterminds can face the consequences of their actions,” Hummelgaard said, however he did not name a specific country for the third-party agreement.

“It’s scary that people can be so cynical that they take advantage of children and young people to get them to commit assassinations,” the Danish justice minister said.

His Swedish counterpart Strommer said Sweden will clamp down on “serious violence” using Denmark’s anti-gang legislation as an inspiration in a “historic” change of tact.

“This means three things: clamping down hard on the violence, stripping the criminals of their economies and breaking the recruitment of children and young people,” he said.

The Swedish minister noted that it is a “fact” that Sweden did not sufficiently deal with gang crimes in recent years.