One of Sweden’s most wanted gang leaders, Ismail Abdo, has been arrested in Turkey, the Swedish prosecutor’s office said on Friday.
The dual Swedish-Turkish national has an extensive list of drug-related charges against him according to the global police agency, Interpol.
The 35-year-old, nicknamed The Strawberry, is a well-known leader of the Rumba crime gang in Sweden. He is accused of orchestrating illegal operations from abroad and has been the subject of an Interpol red notice since last year.
Swedish police did not identify him, but confirmed the arrest of a man “suspected of having engaged in serious drug trafficking and inciting serious violent crimes” for many years in Sweden.
He was one of 19 people who were arrested during raids in Turkey, where officers seized more than a tonne of drugs, state broadcaster TRT reported. Exactly where the raids took place has not been revealed.
Arrest warrants were issued for a further 21 suspects, of whom 14 were believed to be abroad and three already in custody on other charges. Four are still at large, TRT added.
Turkish authorities reportedly seized assets worth around 1.5bn Turkish lira (£27.8m; $38m), including 20 vehicles, bank accounts and 51 real estate properties.
Gang violence in Sweden has escalated in recent years, in part because Abdo’s former friend, Rawa Majida, is the leader of a rival gang, Foxtrot.
Many people have been killed since their deadly turf war began. It entered a new, violent chapter in 2023 when Abdo’s mother was murdered in her home in Uppsala, north of the capital, Stockholm.
The escalation prompted the government to bring in the army to help tackle the surge in gang killings.
In 2024, Turkish police arrested Abdo during a traffic stop, but released him on bail despite the active Interpol red notice against him – a move which drew criticism from Swedish authorities who were seeking to extradite Abdo.
The increase in gang violence that has plagued some of Sweden’s biggest cities and spread to quieter suburbs and towns has shattered its reputation as a safe and peaceful nation.
Lat year, Sweden’s security service, Sapo, accused Iran of recruiting Swedish gang members to carry out attacks on Israeli or Jewish interests. In October, a 13-year-old boy fired shots outside the offices of Israeli tech firm Elbit Systems. Israel’s embassies in Sweden and Denmark were also both targeted.
Sweden’s centre-right governing coalition, which promised to end the gang crime wave when it was elected in 2022, will see Abdo’s capture as a win. However the fact that he is also a Turkish citizen could complicate the extradition process.
An estimated 14,000 people in Sweden are caught up in criminal gangs, according to a police report last year, and a further 48,000 people are said to be connected to them.