Weapons sent to Ukraine could land in the hands of criminal gangs, Swedish police warn
As the United States and other western nations continue to send billions
of dollars of weaponry into Ukraine, police in Sweden are becoming
increasingly concerned that some of the weapons intended for the
Ukrainian military could be trafficked into their own country through
the black market.
Police in Sweden are raising concerns that weapons delivered to
Ukraine by the United States and its western allies could make their
way into the hands of criminals following the end of the conflict with
Russia.
In an interview with Swedish Radio
on Monday, Crime Commissioner Gunnar Appelgren stated “There is
probably a high risk that flows of illegal weapons will enter Sweden”
following the end of the war.
During the broadcast, Swedish Radio stated that many
of the weapons in Sweden that are involved in the country’s recent rise
in violent crime were trafficked from the Balkans and used during the
various conflicts in Eastern Europe throughout the 1990s.
Appelgren said there is a risk of an outflow of weapons should a
peace deal or ceasefire be reached in the Russia-Ukraine conflict,
stating that weapons provided to Ukraine’s armed forces would be less
desired and criminal networks in Ukraine may sell them for a profit to
other criminal organizations.
“A lot of automatic weapons came in, AK47s, Kalashnikovs. A
number of years ago, hand grenades also entered these loads. It comes in
transport in vehicles and buses,” Appelgren said adding that, “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."
Sweden has seen the highest rates of fatal shootings in Europe
in recent years, with a report from 2021 claiming that the country has
the highest rate of deadly shootings in Europe. Sweden has seen a
year-on-year rise in gun violence since 2013, Breitbart reported.
Sweden, alongside its European neighbors and its allies the
United States, Canada, and Australia, has continued to supply weapons
and ammunition to Ukraine to repel Russia’s military offensive, which
began in late February.
Appelgren’s remarks follow comments by Swedish politician Ylva
Johansson, who serves as the European Commissioner for Home Affairs.
Johansson said in May that “with Putin’s war in Ukraine, we see a very
high risk of increased criminal arms trafficking,” according to Swedish
publication Dagens Nyheter.
“Long after the war in the former Yugoslavia, we see the
consequences in Sweden, where weapons from the war are being used in
criminal shootings,” she added.
At the time, the European Commissioner said that the EC intends
to create a proposal aimed at preventing, detecting, and investigating
black market weapons by the end of summer.
As reported by Rebel News
in April, Defense Analysts said that some of the weapons sent to
Ukraine may land in the hands of criminals, with much of it dropping
into a “big black hole.” A CNN report
on the matter says that the U.S. government has few ways to track the
massive supply of armaments sent into the conflict zone, due in large
part to a lack of observers on the ground to monitor their whereabouts.
