Published 07.56
The three tone-setting criminal networks Foxtrot, Dalen and Rumba have been pushed back, says deputy national police chief Stefan Hector.
But beneath the surface, the criminal economy has a turnover of SEK 350 billion a year.
– We haven’t broken anything, but right now we are successful, says Stefan Hector during an interview in Almedalen in Visby.
He has quickly had to replace national police chief Petra Lundh, who broke her foot just before she was going to Gotland when she was playing with her 35-kilogram labrador.
The number of fatal shootings in Sweden has decreased since the record year 2022 when 63 people were shot dead. In 2026, there have been no fatal shootings in January and May, which is an unusual sight in the statistics.
“Barely available”
Stefan Hector says that the police have become better at preventing crime by, for example, pairing an escape from a hvb or youth home with contracts made in encrypted chats.
– The grossest violence has been driven by three tone-setting networks and we have worked on several fronts to reduce their capacity. It has been relatively successful.
The police chief is referring to the gangs Dalen, Rumba and Foxtrot that have dominated the Swedish violent scene.
– We perceive that the two first-mentioned hardly exist anymore, while the Foxtrot network has been severely limited, and we believe that this is another circumstance that has suppressed the violence.
The police have also broken with old sinkhole structures and succeeded in incapacitating leaders in the Middle East and North Africa above all.
– We have had to abandon a lot of old truths, slaughter sacred cows, try new things that we have never done before, says Hector.
Lowered the age of criminal responsibility
At the same time, the gangs continue to recruit children and when the politicians lower the criminal age to 14, he sees a danger in the recruitment going down even lower in age.
– We don’t want to push the perpetrators even lower, that’s what speaks against it. What speaks for is the protection of the public. But mainly it is a political issue that we are adapting to, while at the same time we can state that the solution we have had so far has not been favorable. It’s worth a try.
The number of explosions also remains at high levels and the criminal economy turns over SEK 350 billion annually, of which SEK 185 billion is profit.
For the next term, Hector wants the politicians to stay away from detailed control of the authority, and a new law on secret preventive coercive means. Or, for crime prevention purposes, be allowed to attack, for example, a server located in the Netherlands and selling narcotics.
– That is perhaps the most important request, he says.
