SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Drunken Christmas revelries lead to arrests

Many people went overboard in their Christmas merriment this year, with arrests for public drunkenness up across Sweden over the weekend.

Drunken Christmas revelries lead to arrests

Police i Skåne county, in the south of Sweden, took 44 people into custody for being drunk and disorderly the night between Sunday and Monday, in Blekinge there were 28, in Kalmar 46 and Gävleborg 45.

Police on the Baltic island of Gotland reported that many intoxicated party-goers created all sorts of mischief on the island.

“Maybe not the most peaceful Christmas you might hope for and the question remains whether Santa Claus will visit the homes of the naughty next year,” the local police website report concluded.

In central Malmö, two police officers were almost run down at 2am by a car they tried to stop for reckless driving. Further away two other police officers tried to stop the car, but they also fled to avoid being run over.

The police fired two shots at the car, but it continued towards E 65 highway, heading in the wrong direction to traffic. There, the police were able to pull the car over. A total of seven people in the car were arrested. The charges include two counts of attempted murder, attempted assault and reckless driving.

Three people were also fished out of the canal near a central night club in Malmö.

“We got the call that a woman was paddling around the canal and another woman had jumped in to save her. When we arrived we found three people lying in the water. We fished them out and drove them to the hospital,” said Marie Persson of the Skåne police to news agency TT.

A total of 45 people ended up sleeping off their drunkenness in police stations around Skåne.

“That’s double as many as an ordinary weekend, but not worse than last Christmas,” said Persson to TT.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs using apps to hire ‘child soldiers’

The justice ministers of Denmark, Sweden and Norway are to meet representatives of the tech giants Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok, to discuss how to stop their platforms being used by gang criminals in the region.

Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs using apps to hire 'child soldiers'

Denmark’s justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said in a press release that he hoped to use the meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss how to stop social media and messaging apps being used by gang criminals, who Danish police revealed earlier this year were using them to recruit so-called “child soldiers” to carry out gang killings.  

“We have seen many examples of how the gangs are using social media and encrypted messaging services to plan serious crimes and recruit very young people to do their dirty work,” Hummelgaard said. “My Nordic colleagues and I agree that a common front is needed to get a grip on this problem.”

As well as recruitment, lists have been found spreading on social media detailing the payments on offer for various criminal services.   

Hummelgaard said he would “insist that the tech giants live up to their responsibilities so that their platforms do not act as hotbeds for serious crimes” at the meeting, which will take place at a summit of Nordic justice ministers in Uppsala, Sweden.

In August, Hummelgaard held a meeting in Copenhagen with Sweden’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, at which the two agreed to work harder to tackle cross-border organised crime, which has seen a series of Swedish youth arrested in Denmark after being recruited to carry out hits in the country. 

According to a press release from the Swedish justice ministry, the morning will be spent discussing how to combat the criminal economy and particularly organised crime in ports, with a press release from Finland’s justice ministry adding that the discussion would also touch on the “undue influence on judicial authorities” from organised crime groups. 

The day will end with a round table discussion with Ronald S Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, on how anti-Semitism and hate crimes against Jews can be prevented and fought in the Nordic region. 

SHOW COMMENTS