On Wednesday, the Justice Ministers of Denmark and Sweden met due to the recent wave of violence in Copenhagen, where several Swedish teenagers are being held in custody suspected of serious crimes.
The countries' national police commissioners also participated in the meeting in Copenhagen.
Sticking out
All parties agree to intensify efforts against digital channels used by criminals. According to the ministers, this concerns Tiktok, Telegram, Snapchat, Meta, and Google.
The announcement comes after Swedish teenagers committed serious crimes for payment in Denmark.
Telegram sticks out, of course. That's where we've seen these menus with orders, says Hummelgaard, referring to lists with prices for different crimes.
On Tiktok, you can see these young suspects showing off after committing crimes. We want to do everything we can to find the legal tools to crack down hard on the digital platforms. They must take greater responsibility for their services being misused.
Moving forward
Sweden's Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (M) states that they will hold meetings with the digital platforms to put joint pressure.
I know that the criminal networks constantly change their methods. We've seen just in the past few months how they're moving forward and working with open advertising, he says to TT.
How is that possible?
That's a question we've discussed with these platforms from time to time, we've had it bilaterally, now we're trying to do it in a Nordic context to put increased pressure jointly.
Difficult with extradition
Hummelgaard has previously stated to TT that several of the clients behind the violent crimes are located abroad – and not in Denmark. Therefore, they also want to cooperate on increased efforts against third countries and enablers.
From the Danish side, they also want to prioritize the issue when the country takes over the EU presidency in 2025.
Unfortunately, the people behind this are hiding in warmer places and in countries where we have difficulty getting them extradited. Therefore, we've decided to strengthen cooperation with these countries, says Hummelgaard.
On Wednesday, the Justice Ministers of Denmark and Sweden met due to the recent wave of violence in Copenhagen, where several Swedes are being held in custody suspected of serious crimes.
In total, 17 Swedish citizens have been detained since the spring. Danes are also being held in some of these cases.
National police commissioners from both countries also participated in the meeting.
All parties agree to take a range of measures against organized crime.
They want, among other things, to strengthen the exchange of experiences on preventive measures, put pressure on digital platforms like Tiktok, intensify information exchange, and work to prosecute the masterminds behind gang crime.
They also want the penalties for violent crimes to reflect the severity of the crime.
Denmark and Sweden have already intensified cooperation between their respective police authorities.
During August, a Swedish police officer began working in Copenhagen, and a Danish officer in Malmö. A Danish police officer will also start working with the police's national operational department (Noa) in Stockholm.
