A 16-year-old Swedish boy was remanded in custody on Thursday after a shooting incident on Wednesday evening at Blågårds Plads in Copenhagen.

It was the latest in a series of violent shooting episodes in recent months in Copenhagen, which Danish police say reveals a troubling trend.

“Young Swedes receive a large sum of money for carrying out serious crimes, including murder. What we have seen in this case is attempted murder. But in Sweden, there have been murders, using some of the same channels,” Torben Svarrer from the National Unit for Special Crime told DR.

Swedish boys apprehended in multiple cities
The 16-year-old boy is accused of firing at least one shot with a 9-millimeter Glock pistol at an unidentified person, who was not hit.

On Wednesday morning, a man in Kolding was wounded when he was shot in the leg. A 17-year-old boy was later arrested and in this case too, there is a Swedish connection, writes DR.

In June, a 15-year-old Swedish boy was taken into custody, followed by a 16-year-old conspirator the following day, when the rock group Comanche’s clubhouse in Brøndby was allegedly the target of an attack.

“We have seen that organized criminals on social media demand people who are willing to carry out dangerous crimes and that young Swedes have unfortunately taken on the task for a fee. It is something we obviously take very seriously,” Svarrer writes to Ekstra Bladet.

Dismayed politicians
The startling development has caused Danish politicians to roll out new anti-crime initiatives.

“It is completely absurd that gangs via social media recruit young Swedes to do their dirty work. It is completely off the scale. I have never ever seen or heard of anything similar,” says Preben Bang Henriksen, spokesperson for government party Venstre to DR.

In Sweden, the police now estimate that most of the gangs’ recruitment for their tasks takes place digitally.

But it is a relatively new phenomenon in Denmark.

“Historically, there have been examples of gangs paying people to commit crimes – including violence and murder. But the trend where you post personal ads via social media is new, and very scary,” criminologist and associate professor at Lund University, David Sausdal told DR.

Focus on digital recruiting
The tendency to recruit hitmen or young people to do the gangs’ dirty work via social media must be stopped, Bang Henriksen believes.

He is pleased that the police are drawing attention to the new trend, and promised to discuss the subject with the Minister of Justice after the holidays. He also announced a stronger crackdown on digital recruiting.

“We are going to prioritize police efforts around social media and around the tools that the police have,” says Bang Henriksen to DR.