Swedish police are sounding the alarm over the number of very young children that are being recruited and exploited by the country’s criminal gangs, including a child as young as nine who was caught in possession of a Glock pistol.
Carin Götblad, police chief at the police’s national operational department (NOA), has warned that criminal gangs are actively recruiting children into their ranks. NOA has received alarming reports over the summer relating to children and other young people involved in gang activity.
“Unfortunately, we have seen a nine-year-old who was sitting in a taxi and going somewhere with a Glock in their bag,” Götblad told Swedish broadcaster SVT, noting that due to the surge in shootings this year, police have had less time to work in crime prevention.
Police and social workers in southern Stockholm have also noted that children are increasingly being exploited by gang members and used as ATMs, being forced to buy expensive items or take out sums of cash for other gang members, often using their own parent’s credit cards to do so.
Gangs are not only recruiting from areas of high crime and low employment, but also from those who come from middle-class or affluent backgrounds. Both police and social workers claim children from wealthier households have become fascinated with criminal gangs and their lifestyle.
A father of a child who became caught up in gang culture told SVT: ” They associate it with community and being cool. They feel that it is there that they become visible.” He claimed that his son had been threatened by gang members and it forced the family to move to another city but the problems have remained as his son has again fallen into the same sort of gang environment.
Sweden has already seen a record number of fatal shootings so far this year, matching the previous yearly record last month and some of the fatal shootings have involved minors, including a July fatal shooting that saw a 17-year-old, said to be linked to criminal gangs, murdered in a wooded area just south of Stockholm.
The vast majority of deadly shootings are linked to suspects with a migration background.