EU's roadmap for combating drug trafficking and organized crime

Petter Löberg (S)

Mr. Speaker! There is barely a month left until the Europeans do something very beautiful. They put on something a bit solemn, and then they cast their vote in the ballot box. They thereby point out the future path for our Europe.

We Social Democrats will, in that context, of course fight for a Europe based on humanism and for an open Europe. That is our Europe. It is a Europe where we help each other carry the burdens that we perhaps cannot always bear on our own, where we help each other instead of going alone.

That is what we did when our friends in Belgium and France were hit by the horrific terrorist attacks a number of years ago. Then we helped each other to catch the perpetrators. We helped each other to implement weapons directives. We helped each other in the European family.

That is what we did during the pandemic. Initially, we could see how the countries rushed off on their own and tried to grab a share of the few stocks that existed of face masks and other things. They outbid each other to get vaccines until the European family took a few deep breaths, looked at each other and thought: It is better to cooperate. Then it became very good.

So we also do that when it comes to the organized crime in Europe. That is what today's exercise is about.

Now the EU is taking a 17-point program to take further steps to sharpen the work. This is to be implemented in the coming years. We in the committee have been tasked to comment on it, and we shall try to do so. I will actually only highlight a few individual issues.

For example, it is pointed out in the action plan that we need to sharpen the work with the controls in the so-called logistics hubs, which one can say with a complicated word—ports, with a slightly simpler word. We have also tried to do this during the spring from both the committee and the Riksdag's JPSG delegation, which works with monitoring Europol's activities. We have had seminars where we have received a broad picture of this.

Unfortunately, we can see that Sweden and the logistics hubs located here have increasingly become subjects of large-scale international activity. Seizures are being made on levels that we could not even dream of just a few years ago. Eleven tons of narcotics were seized last year by the customs, who can also see that the large quantities of narcotics are likely not primarily intended for the Swedish narcotics market. This means that it is even more important that we try to cooperate across borders.

Future solutions are linked to a multitude of things when it comes to the logistics hubs. This is also highlighted in this action plan. It is about intelligence work, about fighting corruption and, of course, as usual, about forensics. We need to get this entire system to work together. We have many times discussed what happens when the larger ports in Europe, in Rotterdam for example, scan all containers that are heading from areas where, for example, cocaine is produced. Then other ports, smaller ports, also need to be on their toes.

A common thread in the document we are now debating is that the existing bodies should be sharpened. Not least Eurojust has proven to be an effective tool, but above all Europol. There are some of us here in the chamber who have had the privilege of witnessing Europol on several occasions under the committee's auspices, but also reviewing Europol on a more continuous basis. Europol is an organization that actually does not have a larger workforce than a municipality in Sweden with 10,000 inhabitants. It is an incredibly streamlined organization considering the large tasks it has. Europol builds databases and assists in concrete operations, and it is a hub for the national police forces, not least in cooperation in individual cases.

Some talk about wanting a European FBI. But the fact that the agile Europol works so well today, I see as evidence that we do not need a European FBI – a colossus with feet of clay instead of the hub Europol de facto is today. So there it is said – perhaps a bit off-topic.

Something also highlighted in the report is that more than 80 percent of criminal networks within the EU use legal businesses both for financing and for laundering funds obtained from criminal activities. Here we need to become significantly better at performing background checks, but we also need to become better at conducting concrete inspections of both a health and work-life related nature. It is part of the roadmap, which I think is very good.

The roadmap contains, as usual, some flowery language, and that is natural in documents of this kind. It is high-level conferences here and implementation rhetoric there. But there are also important approaches that the committee welcomes, for example, that one is trying to take a comprehensive responsibility. One could say that it is a holistic approach, if one wants to use flowery language oneself.

Once and for all, we must understand this: If we are to break the gangs and break down crime, we must do so with strong crime prevention work as a natural supporting pillar. Otherwise, we can prosecute individual after individual until the prisons are overflowing. The only ones who will be happy about that in the long run are those who want to start private detention centers. Out of respect for them, we shall not mention them by name here. We do not grant them that. The best thing is to break the gangs before they manage to recruit new people into the activity. This is also very clear from the EU, and it stands very clearly in the roadmap. It is very pleasant that we can agree in the committee that these are important factors in order to be able to combat crime on a structural level.

We Social Democrats stand behind the statement.

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Gudrun Nordborg (V)

Mr. Speaker! I can agree with much of what was just stated by Petter Löberg. As a member of the Left Party, I also share the committee's view that organized crime today is one of the most serious security threats that our societies in the EU face. Therefore, there is a need for powerful and effective measures. They are necessary to meet the problem.

It is not just about what we experience within the nation, but this crime has become increasingly cross-border. Cooperation must absolutely take place. I am therefore essentially positive towards the commission's message and the committee's statement on it. The need is particularly strong when it comes to crime prevention measures. Vänsterpartiet therefore supports the committee's statement in principle.

I have, however, found reason to submit a reservation concerning the motives, where there is a passage that the Left Party (V) does not appreciate. The Commission has a somewhat concerning formulation under measure four regarding how one should proceed with the legal issues. It argues that one should prosecute networks. This is something that is foreign to Swedish legal policy. We usually prosecute individuals. Then, I can be in full agreement that we need to focus on being able to break down the structures and arrest so many individuals that we dismantle the networks and groupings that exist in this area. But with the reservation, we have wanted to signal that it is important to ensure that the Commission, in the continued implementation of the roadmap, does not proceed with concrete legislative proposals that imply that member states should prosecute entire criminal networks. Instead, we should continue to target individuals and thereby hopefully be able to break up the gangs.

Something that also emerges from this many-page-long and interesting report is that drugs are one of the most serious components in the gangs' structure. It is estimated that an entire fifth of global crime overall concerns drugs. There is, of course, reason for us to deploy everything we can to limit this.

One speaks, among other things, about the harmonization of legal definitions and about how we should be able to understand each other better across borders and thereby be able to intervene in a more powerful way. One also marks, which I think is extremely important, the investments in crime prevention measures as an essential part of the long-term fight. One wants to proceed broadly and engage not only national instances but also local authorities and civil society, something that is extremely important for us to be able to prevent new recruitments.

The need for evidence-based strategies and for conducting work based on research, which we have been afraid to seriously do in Sweden, is also emphasized. A need for information sharing is also highlighted. The children are protected in particular. We must be able to protect children and young people from being involved in criminal activities. It is hoped that examples of what is usually called best practice can be collected, i.e., good examples to follow that have been effective in some location or in some country and which we perhaps can continue together.

With this, I want to emphasize that it is important that we cooperate at the EU level to crack down on this crime. There is added value in the work within the EU and it is something that we cannot achieve alone at the national level.

It has also been mentioned that there is now hope for a European port alliance. I also want to highlight that as something important. I believe that many of us have noticed the enormous seizures now taking place in Swedish ports because it has become more efficient on the continent to scan containers and discover what is inside them. Naturally, the criminals have then found a new strategy and turned towards Sweden, where we will hopefully also be able to scan containers and, in cooperation with customs and police, continue the work to break this.

Cooperation is also needed not only within the EU. Perhaps it is, however, only through the EU that we can achieve cooperation also with other nations and jurisdictions outside the EU's borders by joining forces.

I move for approval of the Left Party's reservation.

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Mikael Damsgaard (M)

Mr. Speaker! We live in an extremely uncertain time with both external and internal security threats. Russia's illegal war of aggression in Ukraine requires that Europe holds together. But so does the threat to Europe's internal security posed by organized crime.

We in Sweden are painfully aware of what crime does to a society. Trust is eroded and the social contract is threatened.

The Moderate-led government has begun a much-needed offensive on several fronts to push back organized crime. But we will also need to do more at the European level. Europol points out that organized crime has never posed such a great threat to people and societies as it does today.

Europol recently presented a mapping of the criminal networks that pose the greatest threat in the EU. The report is based on information about 821 high-risk networks and describes how these networks are organized, what types of crimes they engage in, where and how they operate, as well as their characteristics. It is stated, among other things, that 76 percent of the networks are present in two to seven member states, that 50 percent engage in drug smuggling, and that 68 percent use violence or threats in their activities.

Free movement for EU citizens brings us closer together. It makes us freer when we can travel, trade, and work freely in almost all of Europe. But free movement is also exploited by criminal networks. The EU and all 27 member states must therefore work together to strike back against organized crime. When cross-border criminal networks exploit free movement, EU cooperation must stand strong.

We therefore welcome the EU's roadmap to combat drug trafficking and organized crime. The roadmap contains, as the previous speaker has touched upon, 17 measures within four areas that shall be implemented during 2024 and 2025 in close cooperation between the EU's member states and institutions.

It is about mobilizing the customs work against narcotics smuggling with a European port alliance. Because that is how it is: When you tighten the noose around certain ports where large inflows have occurred, the gangs and organized crime shift and target other ports, towards the weak points that exist. Therefore, we must cooperate more closely.

It is about focusing on systematically pursuing entire networks rather than individual perpetrators and individual crimes. That being said, it is ultimately physical persons who will be prosecuted for the crimes they have committed. It requires more efficient information exchange between authorities and member states and that law enforcement agencies are given better access to digital information.

It is about strengthening crime prevention work, including preventing criminals from using companies as tools for crime through administrative measures such as background checks or inspections. Furthermore, the action plan emphasizes the importance of stopping the recruitment of children and young people into criminal activity.

Finally, it is about strengthened international cooperation with countries outside the EU. In the roadmap, West Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean are, among others, identified as strategic areas to strengthen cooperation with. But it also requires that cooperation is strengthened with non-cooperative jurisdictions where criminals can escape justice or invest their crime profits. Regarding these countries, according to the Moderaternas view, the EU and Sweden need to use the entire toolbox, that is, also for example aid and trade policy, to achieve results.

Mr. Speaker! The roadmap is significant for gaining momentum in the EU's collective work against organized crime. But it will not be enough. The free movement for criminals needs to be restricted. It should not be possible for persons who are deeply involved in serious organized crime to live the life on the Spanish coast. We need to curtail the gangs' holidays. Europol's resources and mandate need to be strengthened in order to be able to target and disrupt criminal networks to a greater extent.

Mr. Speaker! The work against organized crime will be one of the most important issues during the mandate period following the European Parliament elections in just one month. Here, the Council, Parliament, and Commission need to join forces to, using the work on the asylum and migration pact as an example, obtain further pressure also in the work against organized crime.

With that, I finally move for approval of the committee's proposal that the Riksdag shall submit the report for public inspection.

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Gudrun Nordborg (V)

Mr. Speaker! Mikael Damsgaard and I are obviously in agreement on quite a lot. I particularly appreciated that you mentioned preventive activities. We are not always in agreement on how extensive it should be, and the member is welcome to elaborate on that somewhat more.

What concerned me, however, in the speech was that aid was also mentioned. There I wonder: Is it about supporting intervention activities, or is it about using the aid more repressively, i.e., that one does not receive aid if one does not fulfill certain "Swedish" conditions?

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Mikael Damsgaard (M)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the question, Member Nordborg!

Using the entire toolbox, including aid policy and trade policy, to put pressure on countries that are not cooperative, I believe is taking responsibility to address those types of problems. When it comes to migration policy, it is about a number of countries around the world that do not take back their own citizens or about our need to deport those who are convicted of crimes. But in this case, it is also about countries that actually protect persons who commit serious organized crime and who are allowed to live protected in those countries.

In the cases where Swedish or European aid goes to those countries, we mean that it is justified to also use those tools to put pressure on them to cooperate in a better way with Sweden and with the EU.

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Gudrun Nordborg (V)

Mr. Speaker! I thank you for the answer, which however leaves me somewhat puzzled. I can understand that one wants to create cooperation. We agree that it is needed across national borders and now perhaps especially with countries outside the EU that will not participate in this that we hope to build up.

The question, however, is whether one will then punish an entire population that may be in need of support and help for democratic development or with fighting poverty. In that case, one exerts repressive pressure on that nation by ensuring they receive no aid at all. Instead, one could try to find other ways for cooperation. One could perhaps both support parts of the population and reach agreements, for example, regarding the extradition of a criminal person.

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Mikael Damsgaard (M)

Mr. Speaker! In what way the aid can be used must be decided on a case-by-case basis and depending on what the aid to the country in question looks like.

When it comes to countries that we have cooperation with, in the form of aid, trade agreements, or whatever it may involve, we shall nevertheless take the right to also use those instruments to put pressure on countries that do not want to cooperate to actually start doing so. We Moderates believe this is a perfectly reasonable position. Depending on how things look in the country in question and how the aid is designed, one can, of course, do it in different ways.

I also want to emphasize the importance of, for example, trade policy. It can be important in this case.

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Torsten Elofsson (KD)

Mr. Speaker! The European Commission has, as has been said here, presented a roadmap for the EU with the objective of combating drug trafficking and organized crime. The roadmap, which we are debating today, contains 17 measures within four priority areas. It is fundamentally about preventing, deterring, detecting, and investigating crimes with a focus on drug crimes and the criminal organizations that primarily control production, distribution, and sales.

The Commission's initiative is welcome, and there is every reason for Sweden to contribute to the implementation of the proposed measures.

Mr. Speaker! Sweden was for a long time spared from organized crime, but in recent years, criminal organizations and networks with international branches have established themselves in our country and now pose an ever-increasing threat to both our safety and our welfare.

Thus, the import of narcotics has increased exponentially, which several speakers have testified to before me. Customs and police have, in recent years, made record seizures of narcotics shipments of hundreds of kilos, sometimes over one ton. A large part of the seizures have been made in containers in Swedish ports. The amount of seized narcotics suggests that the shipments were not intended solely for the Swedish market.

Despite large seizures, customs and police still note that the prices of narcotics in Sweden continue to be stable. This indicates that we have not succeeded in stopping the smuggling into Sweden completely and fully.

Both Europol and the UN's drug agency UNODC have noted that crime syndicates carefully map out ports with lacking control and security and ship the drugs there where the risk of detection is assessed as small. Likewise, there is evidence that criminals recruit accomplices in the ports or even infiltrate the operations with some of their own.

The large ports on the continent have tightened the routines, which has been mentioned here. There is reason for us in Sweden to do the same. The European port alliance proposed in the plan is therefore a step in the right direction towards better security. The port alliance includes, among other things, strengthened customs cooperation but also funds for the purchase of equipment for scanning containers.

One step towards increased security is also that we develop legislation and methods for background checks of persons who have key functions in the ports' shipping and forwarding. Overall, we should get better background checks of personnel within both the business sector and the public sector in order to prevent infiltration and improper influence.

Mr. Speaker! One advantage of the proposed roadmap is that it builds on existing structures with Europol, Eurojust and the European Public Prosecutor's Office as support for the member states and a naturally coordinating role in international cooperation. Also important is the call to the member states to fully utilize the Schengen Information System, SIS, which with the latest update provides great opportunities for important information exchange between the law enforcement authorities.

The EU has a good structure and good systems in place. Now it is the responsibility of the member states to both use the systems and ensure that they are fed with relevant information. More can be done to spread knowledge about SIS and the possibilities for so-called Joint Investigation Teams, where police from different countries are brought together to jointly solve a task. This can occur within the existing regulatory framework, but it is a matter of us becoming better at utilizing it.

Mr. Speaker! Welcome is also an increased focus on criminal networks and the mapping of these that has been carried out by Europol. In order to achieve an effect, it is necessary to strike at the ringleaders who plan, organize and finance drug crime.

A harmonization of legal definitions of what is meant by organized crime is also proposed. It is important that we speak the same language and mean the same thing with the concept of organized crime.

Proposed measures against synthetic drugs, for example amphetamine and fentanyl, should also be mentioned. A large part of that production takes place within the EU, even though Mexican drug cartels also account for some manufacturing alongside the cocaine. The producers have a large amount of violence capital and financial muscles and now constitute a threat to persons within the justice system who are to investigate and prosecute the crimes.

The production we are now talking about is made possible, according to both the American Drug Enforcement Administration DEA and Europol, largely by the precursors that are imported from China. The planned meeting with China is therefore important and welcome.

Mr. Speaker! Finally: The demand for the substances must decrease. Measures are required through prevention, care, and treatment. I mean that we all have a choice and personal responsibility here. Do we want to continue to feed the peacock that organized crime constitutes, or do we want to take our own responsibility and ensure that we do not continue to buy drugs from these cartels?

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Martin Melin (L)

Mr. Speaker! Today we have a crime in Sweden that we have not seen before. Young men shoot people to death to get respect, to get recognition and in some cases to get money. Young men do not care if innocent people die when they choose to blow up houses and gates or when they shoot into apartments. Today, in our society, we have young men who do not hesitate to murder.

In many cases, it is a question of young men who choose this, who want to become criminals and who see something glamorous in being a gang member. For the criminal networks, it is about controlling the drug trade, extortion, and committing fraud. They do this recklessly and without consideration of the consequences, without thought for the harm that affects the victims. And yes, absolutely, the young men are also victims in their own way.

Organized crime is, in its current form, a threat to the system, as it increasingly infiltrates authorities and organizations as well as positions linked to welfare. We see how criminals structure themselves with a strong and authoritarian top that then utilizes younger individuals to rule their market and to control their territory.

This is, Mr. Speaker, a form of crime that we have not previously encountered. When crime changes, the methods of the law enforcement authorities must also change. How often do we not hear police officers sigh and say that the criminals are always one step ahead, and they do so because the police's hands are tied by old and outdated legislation.

It is here that we politicians come into the picture, we here in the Riksdag, we who actually hold the power to give the law enforcement authorities the tools they need and the laws that are needed so that they can keep up as crime evolves and in that way combat it. So that has not really been the case during the years. One has, regardless of who has been in power, looked more at, not quite understood, been naive - a worn and clichéd word in this context. Now we have a government that is a bit more on its toes, that listens to what the police, customs, prosecutors and other authorities need to be effective and in step to combat the new crime.

But parts of crime, those linked to organized crime in Sweden, are cross-border. We see how narcotics from outside the EU enter the EU via European ports. So it is also here in Sweden in the Swedish ports. It concerns over a million containers every year where only a fraction are inspected. The reason why more are not inspected is a lack of resources in terms of personnel and equipment.

And now, in these election times, I shall take a stand for the EU. It is precisely in such situations and contexts that EU cooperation is at its best, that is to say when the member states cooperate, when the different law enforcement agencies in the different member states talk to each other and coordinate efforts in agreement. Without an EU, it would not have functioned as well. That a small country like Sweden should stand outside such a cooperation, we all understand now is bad.

Crimes occurring in Sweden can sometimes be linked to perpetrators in other countries. We see today how the leaders of the various criminal networks sit abroad and direct the operations, and they exploit the young men here in Sweden whom I mentioned earlier. In that case, the law enforcement authorities in Sweden must also work across borders and be able to act in other EU countries. We Liberals therefore want to strengthen the law enforcement work within the EU and make it more effective and more operational. And that is something we will push hard for in the EU Parliament moving forward.

That the customs' work in combating smuggling of drugs and weapons in the ports has been neglected, we have heard before, and we have talked about it before. We also know that the government is investing in customs even in this issue, and that is good. Furthermore, it is something we Liberals have wanted for many years, and we have also talked about this previously.

But it costs money to prevent drugs from being smuggled in through ports. Not least, it costs to have an effective and functioning control, for example with the help of mobile scanners. Customs itself states that more scanners are needed to be able to perform more controls. Now that large seizures are being made by customs in our Swedish ports, it is obvious that the criminals see Sweden's ports as places where drugs can currently be easily brought in. We must change that image.

The roadmap that the EU is now developing wants all ports in the EU to be upgraded and equipped with good and efficient equipment, which, for example, can be scanners. That the EU now jointly wants to make an investment in making it more difficult to smuggle drugs is good, and it is good that Sweden is part of that journey.

I do not intend to stand here and repeat what has been said earlier and talk about all the 17 points that the roadmap covers. Others here in the chamber have done that well. I can only state that we all, across party lines, agree and are positively disposed towards the roadmap. That is also good.

I can also state that I am satisfied that the EU is taking the issue of organized crime seriously and that they now want to invest heavily in combating it.

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Gudrun Nordborg (V)

Mr. Speaker! Member Martin Melin raises the measures we can take in the legal arena and, above all, the need for such interventions. I can largely agree with this. We must, of course, prosecute and convict the crimes that were committed.

But even more important is that we mark and work effectively with preventive activities. There, the member mentioned nothing. Can I hope for a supplement?

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Martin Melin (L)

Mr. Speaker! I can please Member Nordborg by saying the following.

No, I did not raise that question. There was much that I did not raise, but I tried to stick to the repressive issues that the action plan addresses.

I am probably one of the biggest advocates for the fact that crime prevention work now, now that the police have received all the instruments, laws and tools they need to work repressively, is most important and what we must talk about the most. I said in a speech last week that we must talk as much about the social services and their resources as we have talked about the police and their resources in recent years.

The social services today have an enormously important task when it comes to taking care of crime prevention work. The police cannot be everywhere, but the social services and their employees, field assistants and so on, are where the young people are, those young people who have not yet been caught by the criminal networks. It is their task and role to ensure that this does not happen either. That work is ongoing today across the country. I was in Norrköping on Monday and met representatives for the social services there, and I was given a share of the enormously fine work they do there with a program that involves a cooperation between police, social services and school. They work practically with catching young people so that they do not end up in the wrong environment.

I can reassure the members that I am a strong advocate for the fact that we must talk much more about crime prevention work, and much more resources must be allocated to crime prevention work.

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Gudrun Nordborg (V)

Mr. Speaker! I thank you for the answer, which was presented with commitment. It pleases me.

Now that we are facing an election to the European Parliament, it is extremely important that we mark both the crime prevention work and the repressive work. We must make both function in as effective a way as is possible.

I think that is where the current government's work falls short. There is a one-sided focus. I look forward to seeing other signs.

I am very well aware that both social services and schools, from preschool and upwards, have many exciting activities underway that are intended to be able to curb the worrying development with new recruitment. It is not enough that we lock some behind bars and gates if many more become active in the criminal arena and ruin more lives, both for those who are active and for those who then run the risk of being exposed to further violence.

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Martin Melin (L)

Mr. Speaker! The member and I are in complete agreement that crime prevention work is important and that it is the future. I almost want to stick my neck out and say that the solution to stop the wave of violence that we have seen in recent years is crime prevention work.

Therefore, we must talk more about the social services, what they can do and what they need in order to be able to do this.

EU's roadmap to combat drug trafficking and organised crime

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(Decisions were made under § 11.)

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