Swedish Customs success

Last year, 2020, Swedish customs closed down 30 criminal networks. That is to compare with 2019 when the number was 17.

This is a great success in the work against organized crime.

These gangs are grossly criminal and well-organized networks that cause great harm to our society. It is therefore satisfying that the work against this type of crime has yielded results, says Per Westberg, head of the customs criminal department at Swedish Customs. Of the 30 closed down syndicates, 26 of them were engaged in drug smuggling combined with other serious crime.

Two of the networks were involved in alcohol smuggling and two in tobacco smuggling.

In addition to the criminal networks that can be defined as takennout, Swedish Customs were able to identify 57 new sobs last year. Of these, 49 are involved in drug smuggling and eight in alcohol and tobacco smuggling.

A criminal network is counted as ’closed down’in the KPIs and target goals when half of the network’s identified members have been sentenced to prison,

I congratulate my former colleagues in Swedish Customs to this tremendous result.