STOCKHOLM, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Swedish Armed Forces have been called in to help the police forces combat a recent surge in organized crime, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference here on Friday.
The armed forces are well-equipped to handle explosives and IT forensics, and to organize helicopter transports. They also have extensive analytical skills which makes them competent to assess risk scenarios, Kristersson said.
The National Defense Radio Establishment (FRA), a civil authority subordinated to the Ministry of Defense, will also be tasked with assisting the police with signals intelligence, Kristersson said.
"We have increased their funding to enable them to intensify their signals intelligence operations with regards to cross-border serious crime," Kristersson said.
Legislation that allows preventative wiretapping to stop shootings, bombings and other crimes related to organized crime before they are committed will come into effect on Sunday, following a decision made earlier this year.
Kristersson also said that the decision to allow the police forces to request assistance from the Armed Forces is merely a first step, and the police will be given further powers.
In a 2020 study that analyzed criminal activities in 23 European countries, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention found that between 2000 and 2019, Sweden had moved from having the lowest number of shootings to having the highest number of incidents.
This trend has since continued and two shootings and one bomb attack that claimed three lives on Wednesday night and Thursday morning pushed the death toll in September to 12, a level not seen in a single month since 2019.
There have been more than 130 bomb attacks in Sweden since January, surpassing last year's total of 90 incidents.
The majority of the shootings and bomb attacks are believed to be related to organized crime, and many of the victims and suspects are in their teens.
