Published 11 May 2021 at 11.03
Domestic. About ten times more drugs than previous studies have shown are probably smuggled to Sweden every year. It shows the police review of the communication in Encrochat.
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Encrochat was the encrypted communication platform that the French police had access to in 2020 and which the Swedish police could take part in through international police cooperation via Europol.
The police authority has now compiled it material from Encrochat that has connections to Sweden.
The analysis of the Encrochat material confirms the police's intelligence that drug trafficking and drug conflicts are the underlying cause of many violent acts in the form of shootings and explosions.
– Much of what we have been able to read in the chats we have known before and we can state that the police intelligence service makes correct assessments of crime in Sweden. But we can also state that the drug trade has grown significantly larger in recent years, says Linda H Staaf, head of the intelligence unit at the police's national operational department, Noa, on the police's website.
According to the police, the communication from Encrochat shows that drug smuggling is carried out on an almost industrial scale. However, the material analyzed includes communication for a limited period and is based on a source (Encrochat). Taking these circumstances into account, the police estimate that 100–150 tonnes of drugs per year are smuggled to Sweden.
The Central Association for Alcohol and Drug Information, CAN, has previously estimated that drug consumption in Sweden amounts to about 15 tonnes annually. Gothenburg, but also several medium-sized cities. The Öresund Bridge is considered by users of Encrochat to be the most common smuggling route into Sweden, but other border crossings have also been discussed.
– The police's access to encrypted communication between criminals would increase our ability to prevent, detect and prevent serious organized crime. It is also obvious that the judiciary is not dimensioned for the extensive drug market we have in Sweden. It is also clear that both the private sector and the public sector need to increase their ability to withstand unauthorized influence, says Linda H Staaf.
According to the police, the communication on Encrochat also shows that criminal actors exercise unlawful influence and that criminals tries to get in touch with politicians, with public administration officials and with judicial officials in order to protect or promote criminal activity in various ways.
According to the chats, the private sector is more vulnerable than the public sector. The most common is that criminals try to influence lawyers in different ways and in the banking sphere, several criminal actors have contacts that help them commit various types of crimes, such as fraud or employees who accept bribes to grant bank loans.