In a dramatic turnaround, Sweden has slashed its shooting incidents by 63 percent, dropping from a peak of 390 in 2022 to just 147 in 2025, following the government's decision to empower police with expanded authority to dismantle criminal networks recruiting children as hitmen. This sharp decline in gun violence came despite fierce opposition from civil liberty campaigners and the United Nations, which labeled the measures “repugnant and illegal,” according to a report by the Telegraph.
The surge in violence stemmed from Middle Eastern drug syndicates operating in Sweden, which used social media to recruit children as young as 12 to carry out assassinations against rival gang members. This tactic fueled a massive peak in gun-related incidents in 2022, positioning Sweden with the second-highest rate of gun deaths in the European Union at the time, the Telegraph noted.
In response, the Swedish government granted police new enforcement powers in 2024, enabling more aggressive interventions against these organizations. A key tool has been the creation of “safe zones” in high-risk areas prone to shootings or explosions, where officers can search vehicles and individuals—including children—without requiring suspicion of a crime.
Additional powers allow Swedish police to surveil the phones and internet activity of children under 15 suspected of involvement in serious criminal activity. Officers have also been trained to identify at-risk youth through subtle indicators, such as wearing specific clothing brands associated with gang affiliations, per the Telegraph.
These measures have yielded tangible results: murder and manslaughter rates reached their lowest level in almost a decade in 2025, even as police concentrated efforts on neighborhoods heavily populated by migrants, where gangs like the Foxtrot Network predominantly target youth for recruitment.
Civil rights campaigners have condemned the approach as racial profiling, arguing that the placement of safe zones in migrant-dominated areas disproportionately affects those communities. Despite the backlash, the data underscores the effectiveness of the police's targeted crackdown on gang recruitment and violence.
