Transcript
A (0:00)
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A (0:32)
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A (1:01)
Summer 2015 in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden and four childhood friends hatch an ambitious criminal plan for a group of mostly teenagers. Together, they're going to rob a foreign exchange office. You know the kind of place tourists and immigrants exchange money. A big time cash business with lots of bills lying around and way less security than a bank. And a much easier target than one. This sort of armed robbery is new for the group, but there are no strangers to crime. They've grown up in Sweden's Somali community in an area called rinkeby that by the 2010s is starting to develop a reputation for gangs, drugs and violence. Violence that is starting to shock Sweden. The story starts decades earlier. In the 1960s and 1970s, Sweden undergoes a massive plan to build a million housing units in neighborhoods like Rinkeby for Sweden's working class. In the decades following, the country opens up its doors to immigrants needed for the labor supply who flock to these neighborhoods. And in recent years they've taken in large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers, many from war torn countries. Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan. And while there are many success stories in some areas, especially with young men and teenagers, all often second generation, integration hasn't gone well. Who and what you blame for that? Well, the left and the right point to different reasons for why that might be. But all you need to know right now is that this group of friends represent a new trend in the Swedish underworld. Something that's going to turn Sweden's streets into the most violent and dangerous in all of Europe over the next decade. Well, except for Albania. But you know how that goes. And it's all because of the proliferation of gangs from these neighborhoods. A few months earlier, the friends had teamed up and robbed the jewelry shop using smoke bombs and firing gunshots in the air. The gun likely smuggled in from the Balkans. This plan, though, is a big step up for a group of youths looking to score big. And score big they do. They hit the foreign exchange office, it's a success, and they make off with something like $200,000 US. It's a massive score. There's just one little hiccup. One of the teens involved in the planning, he's cut out at the last minute. No heist work, no cash. Probably the biggest windfall he's ever heard of. But he's left with nothing. And he does not take this well. And he blames 20 year old Ismail Aiden, one of the plotters, for what happens, and starts to plot his revenge. It doesn't take long. That very same week, he's able to lure Ismail into a nearby forest, where he promptly guns him down, killing him. A few days later, another murder. A teenager killed, allegedly retaliation for the first murder. And so begins the gang war that defines Sweden in the late 2010s, as friends and family of these guys split into two gangs and that will become infamous across Sweden and set the tone for the country's underworld. Death Patrol, sometimes called Death Squad and Shadas. Over a dozen will be dead in the coming years, likely more, as child hitmen hired through encrypted apps fire automatic rifles in broad daylight on Sweden streets. Many will attribute Sweden's unparalleled rise in gangland violence to this split into rival factions. But many other gangs rise up during this brutal war. The gangs form alliances, cooperate on drug shipments, hire each other for hits, and sometimes merge while fighting viciously over territory, money and respect, egging each other on over Instagram and TikTok. The Shadows vs Death Patrol War is going to create a fundamental shift on Sweden streets. So much so that in 2023, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will take to the airwaves and address the nation saying, quote, sweden has never before seen anything like this. No other country in Europe is seeing anything like this. Later adding that Swedish laws aren't designed for gang wars and child soldiers. Says Diamant Salihu, an investigative journalist and author of a number of books on Sweden's gangs. We have so many child soldiers that nobody can count anymore. There are kids as young as 13 being arrested. How did one of Europe's safest, most prosperous countries descend into the real life version of Grand Theft Auto. This is the Underworld Podcast.