Lost control, says Swedish PM as immigrant gangs take over Sweden

Five people have been shot in an attack in Sweden's Orebro on Tuesday. This comes days after the body of Iraqi militia leader Salwan Momika was found in his Stockholm apartment with gunshot wounds. These are not one-off instances in Sweden. The land of the mild-mannered is witnessing frequent gang wars in its cities of Gothenburg, Malmo and Stockholm. Here, flats are blown into smithereens and shopping centres see broad daylight shootings. But how did the European country descend into such never-before-seen violence? Are immigrants from Muslim nations to blame for it?

In the latest case of violence, five people were shot in an attack at a school in the city of Orebro, located approximately 200 km west of Stockholm, on Tuesday. The attack was being investigated as "attempted murder, arson, and an aggravated weapons offence".

The attacker is reported to be of Syrian origin.

Though it isn't known yet if this is gang-related violence, what is sure is there has been a record increase in gang wars and attacks.

In the first month of 2025, Sweden recorded 31 explosions along with a murder involving a 'foreign power'.

A report by the UK Express has also discussed how bombings took place every three days and shootings every 28 hours in the last year. Experts believe Muslim immigrants from Middle Eastern and Balkan nations are behind the gang wars in Sweden.

NO CONTROL OVER WAVE OF VIOLENCE, SAYS SWEDISH PM

"This is Sweden’s inherited problem. They have grown over a very long time," said the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. "That we do not have control over the wave of violence is quite obvious," he added.

Sweden has the EU's highest rate of brutal gun violence per capita in 2023. In the last month of 2024, 40 people have been shot dead in Sweden -- a chilling number for a European country of only 10-million people, according to a Reuters report.

Gangs are not new to Sweden. It has seen violent gang rivalries between gangs like Los Bandidos and Hells Angels since the 90s. These gangs could be easily identified because of their members' sunglasses, leather jackets and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

But the older gang wars look like an "age of innocence", in comparison to now, reported The UK Express.

The new gangs are made up of immigrants from the Middle East and Balkan nations. The violence has become deadlier and lot more frequent.

STREET GANGS INCREASED IN SWEDEN SINCE EARLY 2000s

The UK Express discussed the origins of this bloodshed with criminologist Ardavan Khoshnood, an associate professor at Lund University. Khoshnood said it could be traced to the turn of the century.

"In the beginning of the 2000s, we started witnessing more street gangs and more ethnic criminal groups. They mainly started to grow in areas we call ‘vulnerable’ with a lot of unemployment, low education and socio-economic status. Today, criminals have taken over that society to quite a high degree. When these gangs started to come to power they developed different territories and got very quickly deep into drug trafficking," said Khoshnood.

He also discussed how the rate of shootings increased among criminal gangs by the late 2000s. But it was getting harder to trace these criminals. This was because many international criminal networks were at play here.

This is the "inherited problem" the Swedish PM was referring to.

IMMIGRANTS FROM ISLAMIC COUNTRIES IN GANGS IN SWEDEN

"Mass Islamic immigration has turned Sweden, once one of the safest countries in the world, into one of the most dangerous in Europe within two generations," said Amy Mek of the US-based think tank Rair Foundation.

However, criminologist Khoshnood made an interesting point about the immigrant gangs in Sweden.

“The studies we have conducted on gangs and criminal networks show that they are not based on, for example, religious beliefs or ethnicity,” said Khoshnood.

"But I would say close to about 90% of those criminal gangs and criminal networks are individuals with an immigrant background. They come from the Middle East and the Balkans, but you can have a mixture of both of them in the same gang," he added.

"What's important for them is loyalty, drug trafficking and space. So we see shootings [and bombings] because of revenge, trafficking and turf," concluded Khoshnood to the UK Express.

But the Swedish government is trying to solve this rampant problem with a special team for rapid response to explosions.

"I can guarantee that the security services are deeply involved in this because there is obviously a risk that there is also a connection to foreign powers," the Swedish PM said on Momika's death.