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GOTHENBURG TERROR PLOT

CRIME

Four arrested for preparing terror crimes

Police in Gothenburg, on the west coast of Sweden, arrested four people during the early hours of Sunday on probable cause suspected of preparing terrorist crime, confirmed Sara Kvarnström, press officer of the Swedish Security Services (Säpo), to news agency TT.

Four arrested for preparing terror crimes

“The arrest was made with the help of the National Task Force and Gothenburg’s police force,” she said.

The National Task Force (Nationella insatsstyrkan) is the Swedish police’s special operations unit.

Sweden’s terror alert level has been at an ‘elevated’ level for a year, but Kvarnström reports that incidents in Gothenburg haven’t raised the alert level further.

“There’s an ongoing judgment made, and it can always be changed. But right now we’ve judged that there is no reason to take security-raising measures in Swedish society in general,” Kvarnström told TT.

“There’s no cause for the general public to be concerned,” she said.

Sara Kvarnström doesn’t want to comment further on the events of the night.

The arrest occurred during the night between Saturday and Sunday, near Röda Stens Konsthall, an art gallery by the Älvsborg Bridge.

Gothenburg’s International Biennial for Contemporary Art’s opening party was ongoing at the gallery, when the police arrived on the scene.

Just after midnight, the police asked the gallery’s manager to evacuate the area.

“I don’t know much more than that the police threw us out, and said they’d arrested four people suspected of terror crimes. Then they cordoned off the whole area,” said manager Mia Christersdotter Norman to daily newspaper Expressen.

Gothenburg police confirmed that an area around Röda Sten has been cordoned off.

On Sunday morning, the police website informed the public that the area was evacuated and cordoned off because of “a threat that implied serious danger to lives, health or extensive property damage.”

“I can’t say anything else, because we aren’t giving any information from here,” said Gunilla Gustafsson, of the police’s county communications centre, to TT.

Röda Sten now shows no sign of last night’s evacuation. Photographer Adam Ihse, from Scanpix photo agency, was at the spot earlier Sunday morning.

“There’s nothing left, no cars, no policemen. It looks exactly like normal,” said Ihse to TT.

The arrest was made ten years to the day since the terror attacks in New York.

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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. 

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