Luxury cars are stolen in Stockholm and sold in West Africa

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Published 17 November 2022 at 12.35

Domestic. During the autumn, the border police in Stockholm worked with the theft wave of premium cars which mainly affected the northern parts of Stockholm. So far, the police have found and seized 19 such cars.

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Nine of the cars were stopped by Swedish police when they were about to be reloaded in Las Palmas for onward travel in a container to West Africa. Other cars have been found in containers in Sweden but also in other places in the Stockholm area.

The police see that the cars are either driven out via ferry to the Baltics and on to Eastern Europe or shipped in containers to West African countries.

– One of our hypotheses is that the vehicles that are brought to West Africa may be payment for drugs that are brought into the country, says Daniel Almskog, acting head of the border police's group against international criminal networks, in a comment.

During the week, a trial is underway in which four men stand accused of aggravated theft in relation to some of these cars, and last week two more people were arrested, also for aggravated theft in relation to the same type of car.

The thieves usually use technologically advanced equipment to steal the car. The equipment can consist of so-called relay equipment where, through a receiver, you can cut the signal from the car's car key and thus be able to open and start the car.

Another approach is for the thieves to get into the car's interior through external influences electrical system and thus gain access to the car's functions. After the car is stolen, it is re-identified by being given a new chassis number and new falsified vehicle documents. The car can then be sold on markets in other countries as better used cars to unknowing buyers.

The border police in the Stockholm region work in close cooperation with other countries in Europe that have been affected by the same problem. Europol and Interpol also follow developments and contribute with their expertise in the area.