Some 62,000 people are active or connected to criminal networks in Sweden, police said today, as authorities have struggled for years to curb violence linked to organized crime.

Shooting deaths have more than tripled in the past decade in this country of 10 million people and are at much higher levels than in its neighboring countries.

“We have identified 14,000 (people) active in criminal networks,” National Police chief Petra Lundh told a news conference. “Moving on to the people who have connections to these networks, here we estimate that there are 48,000 people.”

There were 62 fatal shooting incidents in Sweden in 2022, Justice Minister Gunnar Stremer added.

“In 2023, although the number of fatal shootings decreased slightly, preliminary data show that Sweden had nine times more fatal shooting incidents than Norway, Denmark and Finland combined,” the minister noted at the same press conference.

At the same time, the number of explosive attacks was the highest ever recorded, he added.

“We are talking about a system-threatening crime with a high propensity for violence that silences witnesses, threatens social workers, infiltrates authorities and political parties, deals in drugs, defraudes the elderly and welfare systems,” Stremer added. on criminal networks.

Last September there were 11 fatal shooting incidents, making it the deadliest month in Sweden since 2019.