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Rajoni dhe Bota2024-04-02 18:48:00

Bloody war between gangs in Sweden/ From bullets to grenades, how much do you get paid for a murder?

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Bloody war between gangs in Sweden/ From bullets to grenades, how much do you
Adam, gang member in Sweden

In a car park on the outskirts of Sweden, Adam shows how much money can be made by shooting someone.

“If you shoot someone in the leg, you get paid £3,700. It was different before. If you killed someone you would get £76,000, but now the prices are so low that everyone kills," he says.

He's young now, but Adam has been involved with gangs since he was 9 years old.

Now a young man, Adam has been in a gang since he was nine years old.
He covers his face to protect his identity - leaving only his eyes visible - and answers questions briefly.
"I'm not worried about my safety because I've eliminated almost everyone," he claims.

He admits that he has committed many crimes, and has been in prison several times.
"I've seen a lot of things happen," says Adam (not his real name) in the city of Uppsala.
He is part of a wave of gang violence that has rocked Swedish society and turned the country, with a reputation as a safe and peaceful nation, into a hotbed for murder.

Sweden's gun crime death rate is now the highest in the European Union. About 62,000 people are linked to criminal networks in the country.
Much of the violence is the result of gang warfare, with more and more groups competing for territory and the lucrative narcotics trade.
 
For gangsters like Adam, this represents a business opportunity. He estimates he has won two "rabbits" (slang for a million Swedish kroner) for taking the jobs, which is about £150,000, but with such financial rewards come risks.

A week ago, he says, a rival gang came looking for him, but the would-be assassins didn't get far. He has given himself up to a life of crime, the bonds he has formed with the other gang members are very close.
"I personally will never leave. I don't see myself in a gang, I see it as being in a family," he says.

Sweden's centre-right government has announced the country's first national strategy to fight organized crime, a series of proposals aimed at cracking down on gangs.

It is already debating legislation that would allow the imprisonment of teenagers up to 15 years old.
In 2022, almost half of gun homicide suspects were between the ages of 15 and 20.
Adam doesn't think the policy will stop teenagers from getting a gun.

"People here don't care about punishment. For the right amount of money, they're willing to risk a life sentence," he says.

Adam's grim assessment is backed up by statistics.
Last year, 363 recorded shootings led to 53 deaths across Sweden, according to police. In 2022, the gun homicide rate in Stockholm was approximately 25 times higher than in London.

A common find in police raids are AK-47 rifles, modern assault rifles and even hand grenades. Most of them originate in the former Yugoslavia, where corrupt officials easily shipped weapons to the black market after the end of the Cold War. These weapons of war are not only used against gang members.

With attackers untrained and increasingly young, innocent bystanders are caught in the crossfire. Cases of mistaken identity are also common. Jale Poljarevius, the intelligence chief for Sweden's Mitt region, points to a "job ad" placed on social media where gangs routinely advertise murders for hire. On macabre job boards like this, information on the target can be scarce.

"Go to a special area and kill someone with a Gucci hat," the ad says.

Gucci baseball caps are common clothing with gang members in Sweden. In her gangs, wearing the wrong clothes is enough to get you killed. Life also has a low value. Some jobs earn killers up to £4,500, according to police.
Increasingly, young gang members are turning to explosives to supplement their arsenal: hand grenades from the Balkans, often given free with the purchase of an assault rifle; dynamite stolen from construction sites, or homemade bombs. "It's easier to plant explosives [somewhere] and then leave the place," says police superintendent Daniel Larsson in Uppsala. /SKY

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