A Swedish law enacted in 2017 to halt the importation of hand grenades intercepted just five in five years, meanwhile the country saw hundreds of bombings and explosions, many of which are known to have been caused by smuggled grenades.
Swedish customs has reported seizing only five hand grenades since the law came into effect in 2017, or an average of one per year. Amid that failure, grenades have become a weapon of choice in recent bombing attacks in the Stockholm area during an ongoing gang war.
In the last several weeks alone, Sweden has seen at least three bombings caused by hand grenades, including a bombing just prior to New Year’s in the Stockholm area of Enskededalen, a bombing last Sunday in Uppsala and another explosion in the southern Stockholm area of Årsta on Thursday.
Sweden: Just Seven Convictions After Year of Over 250 Explosions and Bombings https://t.co/IjJl84CS01
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 28, 2020
Oscar Lindvall, deputy head of control at Swedish Customs South, told broadcaster SVT, that the low number of seizures was due to a lack of resources, saying: “To stop hand grenades at the border, we need to have more resources. As it looks now, it is quite easy to bring them into the country.”
According to police statistics, in the hundreds of explosions since 2017, hand grenades were involved in around a hundred different cases and most are smuggled into the country from states involved in prior wars in the Balkan region.
“It is a well-known problem that there is a leakage from previous war zones. It is also a concern we have now, that hand grenades will start to come in from Ukraine,” he added.
Swedish Inspector Gunnar Appelgren expressed similar concerns last year about illegal weapons coming from Ukraine saying, “There is a high risk of flows of illegal weapons entering Sweden,” and added, “If there are weapons, there is a market, and if there are conflicts, there is a need for weapons. And we have conflicts in Sweden.”
Appelgren spoke to SVT this week about the ongoing gang violence in Stockholm saying, “These groupings use what is available. Right now, they have access to hand grenades and explosives, so then they blow things up.”
“The police have been poor at looking at these cases strategically. Instead, we have focused on drugs and murder. We need to start working together with Serbia and Bosnia,” he added.
Swedish police have expressed concern that weapons being used in the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia may make their way to Sweden where they could fall into the hands of criminal gangs. https://t.co/za4R7J4VPW
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 7, 2022
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