A new report reveals that gang criminals are making money by running preschools and family day homes. According to police and other authorities, criminals have infiltrated all parts of the welfare system where private actors are allowed, including dental clinics, pharmacies, sheltered housing, and dropout operations. One method of exploiting the school system is to have children enrolled who do not actually attend, while still receiving preschool funding from the municipality.
Criminals have run sheltered housing, putting vulnerable women and dropouts at risk. There are indications that individuals with gang connections work in or run dropout operations that have agreements with the Swedish Prison and Probation Service. HVB homes are also exploited, with staff helping with escapes and recruiting children into gangs.
Dental clinics and health centers systematically invoice for fictitious patients. Criminals collaborate with pharmacies to obtain large quantities of medicines, including narcotics, without reporting to IVO. Fraud occurs with sickness benefits, activity support, and housing allowances, with criminals pretending to separate or divorce to receive benefits they are not entitled to.
The report contains no figures on how widespread the fraud and crime against welfare systems are. The Swedish Economic Crime Authority reported that healthcare centers, vaccination services, schools, preschools, and pharmacies have been taken over by organized crime. Sweden's voucher-based privatization of welfare services has led to a proliferation of private providers compromising quality for profit, according to some assessments.
You take Tinder, for example, and set your search radius so the police school is in the centre. When you get a match, it's easy to check if it's a student, through class lists or how they present themselves on social media. They're proud of their line of work.
Organized crime has shifted into welfare fraud, using trafficking victims as cheap labor. Criminals set up businesses, use poor people as cheap labor, and produce forged certificates to claim benefits from welfare programs. The risk of getting caught for welfare fraud is close to non-existent due to ineffective control systems.
Poor immigrants are brought to Sweden, deprived of passports, and forced to work as assistants for elderly or disabled people without salary. Multiple gang members have infiltrated the police force by dating police employees or using family connections to access sensitive information. A police student named Elin made illegal searches in the police register for her boyfriend Jonas over four years.
Leaks from police to criminals have preceded revenge attacks, and some enemies of gang members have disappeared or been murdered. At least 30 police employees were considered security risks and either resigned or were forced to quit. Over 514 suspected leaks from police to criminals have taken place since 2018.
Criminals use dating apps to target police students, as described by a gang member named Jonas. Over a billion Swedish kronor in school funds have been siphoned off through an Islamist-affiliated network, according to reports. Rabie Karam, a main actor in a network of independent Swedish schools linked to radical Islam, was convicted in 2024 and is wanted for an eight-month prison sentence.
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Former Swedish MP Abdirizik Waberi was convicted for embezzling 12 million kronor from school funds via fake invoices. An imam named Abo Raad was deemed a threat to national security and deported from Sweden. Gangs now make more money from financial crime than narcotic sales, with welfare fraud profits estimated at SEK 6 billion, according to the Swedish Economic Crime Authority.
The Foxtrot network, led by Rawa Majid from Turkey, is one of the gangs exploiting the welfare system. Teenage boys as young as 14 and 16 are used as 'child soldiers' by the Foxtrot network for assassination missions. In July 2023, two teenage boys were sent to Sundsvall to kill a rapper linked to a rival gang.
The boys were kidnapped, tortured, and stabbed; both survived. The Sundsvall case led to 11 convictions. The Swedish government is considering deploying the military to address gang violence, according to Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
A new explosives registry is being established in response to gang bombings. The Swedish government is proposing to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 13 for certain serious crimes. Special high-security units for children are being prepared at Kumla prison, with 32 places.
158 prosecutors have signed a protest letter against the proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility. 6 billion, according to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. Sweden's welfare fraud problems are largely due to inadequate ability to detect and sanction these crimes, according to a government analysis.
The total scale of welfare fraud by organized crime in Sweden remains unknown, as does the number of children currently being used as 'child soldiers' by the Foxtrot network.