Lately the police has put some resources into informing the public about gang crime. The message is that not even Västerbotten is spared from this.
The criminal networks are growing according to the police who also see that the problems are spreading in Västerbotten.
In the last few months they have put resources into informing the public about gang crime, including a film aimed at legal guardians, that has been published on the police website.
Lars Westermark, head of the local police area in Skellefteå now says that more than 100 young people in Skellefteå are close to the criminal gang environment.
– We have identified more than 100 names who are close to this environment that isn’t healthy. – We are talking about young people aged 13 to 19, he says.
The Skellefteå police are trying to reach out to the young people they suspect risk being pulled into gang criminality. This is done through "concern conversations" with the legal guardians.
It may be about people using drugs, identifying with gangster culture via for example clothes or music, or have a “norm breaking” attitude against the police.
– There are different levels. But what they all have in common is a curiosity about this environment, says Lars Westermark.
How are you dealing with these individuals?
– It’s about making contact with them. We try to find them and talk to them, says Maria Hedman, local police officer.
She continues:
– It’s also about fighting crime and conducting criminal prosecution, that is filing police reports. Sometimes we also involve the field activities or write notifications of concern in order to involve social services. And in some cases we also have what we call concern conversations with the legal guardians in order to make them aware of what we have seen.
Maria Hedman, local police officer in Skellefteå, says that some of the drug trade in Skellefteå has been traced to the criminal Dalen network.
– There is also talk about the Foxtrot gang up here, she says.
Several things have happened in the last few years connected to gang crime and Skellefteå. In 2023 there was a shooting in Umeå, which was part of a big conflict in Västerbotten. The perpetrator was a 20-year old former Skellefteå resident and the event had clear connections to a Skellefteå family.
Are you experiencing that it has had an impact?
– Yes, in the way that many people have become aware of the problems. If something happens later on, these people are often quick to contact us or social services, Maria Hedman says.
According to her and Lars Westermark, anyone can be pulled into gang crime. They want to challenge the idea that it would only be people with, for example, a broken home situation.
– Having said that, there are few people with these problems that also have a stable and secure life with a social network around them, Maria Hedman says.
– A common denominator is a lack of adult presence. It may be that there is no supervision online or when the children are out on the town or something else.
According to Lars Westermark it is more common than before that ”an average person” knows criminals. Before, that type of person was more in the shadows, he says.
Lars Westermark’s perception is that the distance has been reduced; it is no longer strange that an average person can know the criminal world.
– Before these people were on the other side of society, they stayed away from public places and such. That is not really the case anymore, he says.
According to information Norran has received, Morön and Moröhöjden have been mentioned as exampled of risk areas in a report a couple of years ago. But when we ask the police about this today, they do not want to point out any specific part of Skellefteå. As recruitment is often done digitally it is not possible to say that the problems are centred to any specific location, Maria Hedman says.
– In general you can say that where there are many young people there is also a risk of recruitment. It could be public places, the city centre, sports grounds etc.
– A few years ago we targeted efforts at Skogsvallen and Anderstorps IP. We found remnants of hashish and understood that many of the young people we met were in the risk zone. But when we start having a lot of presence in one place, the youths understand that and move on to other places.
Anderstorp IP is one of the places where the police have reinforced their presence in periods. Archive photos.
Many people probably connect gang criminality with the straight up gang wars of southern Sweden. Revenge acts such as bombings and gang murders is something Skellefteå has been spared so far.
– But we have dealt with cases with a larger level of threat. The most common thing we do is to steer it away, make sure things don’t happen, Lars Westermark says.
Do you have an example of that?
– A year ago or so we had a young kid in upper secondary school here in Skellefteå, we got indications that he was about to take on a ”jappning” (slang to shoot and kill someone, editor's note). We brought him in for questioning but he denied and we couldn’t take the case any further, Maria Hedman explains.
She continues:
– Based on our concern however, it was decided that he should be transferred and he left the municipality. He was later arrested for serious weapons crime. This is one example of us warding off something thanks to becoming aware of it.
According to municipal police officer Daniel Karlsson there are not the same types of loyalty conflicts here in Skellefteå as there are among the criminal networks of southern Sweden.
– It has happened that we have found strong connections to a certain network. Then a few weeks go by and a conflict has erupted in southern Sweden between those who were previously on the same side. But up here it does not have such a strong hold yet. You have the possibility of changing your mind in a way you can’t there.
He adds:
– A lot of our work is not visible to the public and there is a lot we cannot report. We may perhaps never get a confirmation that we’re doing the right thing, instead it remains a gut feeling, an sense of making a difference.
Daniel Karlsson is a municipal police officer and operative coordinator in Skellefteå.
Images of bomb-making in Skellefteå. The images show the basement where the lethal manufacturing was happening.