A majority of those contributing to Sweden’s organized crime crisis are people with migrant backgrounds, according to a new national assessment that exposes the scale of criminal networks active across the country’s economy.
The report, published by Sweden Against Organized Crime, identified a core group of 50,165 individuals assessed by the Swedish Police Authority and the Acta Publica database as being part of organized crime in Sweden. This figure rises to 224,390 when expanded to account for accomplices and those aiding or abetting suspects.
The report finds that organized crime is no longer confined to street gangs or isolated criminal incidents, but is instead deeply interwoven with legal companies, public money, welfare flows, the labor market, and state institutions.
Around 30 percent of the organized crime study population were foreign-born, while 49 percent had two foreign-born parents, and 60 percent had at least one foreign-born parent. This is despite first and second-generation migrants comprising around 27 percent of the Swedish population.
The report states that organized crime “cannot be reduced to migration background” alone, with 40 percent of the core group born in Sweden to two Swedish-born parents. However, it also states that migrants are disproportionately represented in the organized crime study population, making it a relevant factor in understanding the composition of Sweden’s criminal networks. Sweden Democrats MEP Charlie Weimers, commenting on the report, also noted that those classified as Swedish for the report’s purposes could also be third-generation migrants or further back.
New official report exposes the true scale of Sweden’s organised crime problem – and a recent incident in Poland shows why the “Swedish” label often hides the reality.
There are 50,165 people in the inner core of Sweden’s organised criminal networks. This group is linked to 23%… pic.twitter.com/NBPr8IbvEF
— Charlie Weimers MEP 🇸🇪 (@weimers) May 12, 2026“Many who are labelled Swedish in statistics and media have no real Swedish background – only Swedish citizenship,” he wrote on X.
The wider organized crime environment can be linked to around 40 percent of all registered suspected crimes between 1995 and 2023. The offenses include drug crimes, violent crimes, theft, fraud, economic crime, and firearms offenses.
The report stresses that these figures relate only to registered and detected criminality, warning that the true scale is likely to be greater because organized crime is adaptive, opportunistic, and often geared toward avoiding detection.
The assessment also found that organized crime has a major foothold in Sweden’s legal economy. “Companies and formal economic structures have become important interfaces between organised crime and the legal economy,” the report noted.
Around 18 percent of the core group had corporate involvement between 2015 and 2023, and the group was linked to more than 20,000 companies. The authors warned that companies can provide criminals with legitimacy, premises, vehicles, labor, transaction opportunities, public contracts, and formal roles. This provides ways to avoid detection as well as launder money, turning proceeds of crime into legitimate, taxable income.
The networks were also linked to vast sums of public money. The core group received around SEK 27 billion (€2.5 billion) in registered benefits and allowances between 2015 and 2024. When the wider network is included, that figure rises to around SEK 178 billion. The report cautions that these payments are not automatically fraudulent, but says they show extensive contact between organized crime actors and Sweden’s labor market, tax system, welfare system, and public transfers.
These figures are significantly higher than the findings of a government review earlier this year, reported on by Remix News, which revealed that around SEK 3.6 billion (€327.5 million) had been paid to individuals known to police for gang affiliation over the last few years.
The assessment also found organized crime actors present in sensitive professions, including care, security and surveillance, social work, healthcare, banking and finance, and public administration. “The corporate form can provide legitimacy, economic room for maneuver, labor, premises, vehicles, transaction opportunities, public contracts, and formal roles,” it noted.
In some cases, individuals in both the inner and outer organized crime circles also appeared as elected representatives. The report says the numbers are limited relative to the size of the groups, but strategically serious due to the access and power such a position of authority can provide.
Weimers said the report exposed “the result of decades of uncontrolled mass immigration and failed integration. It has created a parallel criminal society living off Swedish welfare.
“The time for excuses is over. We must stop asylum immigration completely. We must deport foreign criminals immediately. We must end the welfare magnet and put Swedish citizens first,” he added.
