More and more young people are involved in the gang war that has rocked the country for the last few months Swedenthe head of the national police said today, after the violence that claimed the lives of three people within 24 hours and has shocked the country.

“We have a situation where children themselves are coming into contact with criminal gangs” to commit murders, said Anders Thornbergthe head of the national police, during a press conference.

Sweden has for years been faced with a violence linked to the fighting between gangs to control the smuggling of drugs and weapons in the country.

This violence has escalated in recent months due to an internal dispute within one of these gangs. Bloody exchanges of fire and explosions are now almost daily.

“Criminals are ruthless,” Thornberg added, describing a well-oiled system that these latter resort to when they want to kill their rivals: they call in outsiders, who are often minors. “They provide them with the weapons and give them the address to attack.”

Often the victims are also young.

According to public count television network SVT12 people were killed by gunfire and explosions in September, which was the deadliest month in four years.

The night between Wednesday and Thursday was particularly bloody, with three murders, including those of an 18-year-old youth and a 25-year-old woman.

“Children should have faith in the future, children and young people should not wish to become murderers,” emphasized the head of the national police.

THE Mats Lindstroma police observer in the Stockholm district who has examined numerous messaging platforms where these murders are ordered, confirms that these “contracts” are in high demand among young people.

“We see them writing: ‘Are there contracts? Me and my friend are available for 200,000 kroner,’” he says. They do it “to gain some status, to become somebody, to have ‘the glamor of a killer'”, as a young man had confessed to him during an investigation.

In August 2023, 69 people under the age of 18 were in pre-trial detention in Sweden, compared to 14 in the same month of 2021.

Yesterday, Thursday, the Swedish Prime Minister announced that the army will reinforce the police in their work on the ground to stop the escalation of violence.