Sweden will rush through legislation allowing police to wiretap children under 15 after a recent spate of bombings ordered by criminal gangs recruiting teens, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced Thursday.
“We are pushing the legislation to enter into force in the fall of 2025 … This is important to get at those who often sit far away and order crimes of children in Sweden,” said Kristersson at a press conference after an extraordinary meeting with the country’s council against organized crime.
The original idea was to have the law ready by summer 2026.
Sweden is grappling with a crime wave involving teenagers who are being hired by gangs through social media, particularly Telegram, to do everything from spying and committing vandalism to violent acts, bombings and murder.
According to the police, many of the teen contract killers are very young and are being hired from abroad. Based on the police data, around 600 criminals targeting Sweden live abroad.
“We see 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds carry out horrific violent assignments as if they were extra jobs. The assignments are communicated completely openly on digital marketplaces. Crime is often controlled by gang criminals who are abroad,” said Sweden’s national police chief Petra Lundh.
Around 30 bombings have taken place in Sweden this January so far, with five blasts in Stockholm alone over the last 24 hours.
“During the month of January, there has been an average of one blast per day. That trend must of course be broken,” Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Kristersson said that Sweden is working with countries like Turkey, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates to get gang leaders based there extradited.
Sweden is also trying to crack down on the tech platforms in order to force them to stop recruitment by gangs, and has asked the European Union to step in.
