A Swedish Chameleon
In 2015 crime is on the rise. Drugs, and weapons available and easy to smuggle into the country. Several city neighborhoods in Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden, located in the southern part, just across the sound from Copenhagen, Denmark, are run and controlled by criminal elements; stigmatization and social exclusion widespread; restaurants and businesses used as meeting places or as storage facilities for narcotics and stolen goods. Everything from furniture, alcohol and tobacco controlled, creating a black market. The merchants in the neighborhoods must buy from the gangs either by necessity or by force.
Threats to the owners and family members of these merchants and the police trying to protect them, occur. As a result, the police have given up patrolling in fear of being attacked or having their families threatened. Instead these areas are controlled and run by gangs, criminals, drug dealers and weapon smugglers, part of and forming the core of the Swedish Mafia.
The bridge connecting the city of Malmö, Sweden with the larger cosmopolitan city of Copenhagen, Denmark, allows legit businesses on both borders to flourish. It also carries illegal immigration and flow of drugs & weapons into Sweden, with quick money to be made.
It has created a “new economy” with no regulatory restrictions and no juridical security for the victims. Likewise there's a great interest for Swedish Passports at prices starting at $12,000 with no upper limit, acquired by desperate illegal immigrants and refugees seeking to buy a future in Sweden. Because of their dependency on the smugglers bringing them in, the liability they incur can solely be paid back by becoming caught up in the unlawful interests of their “protectors”.
Darknet, and Bitcoin to pay for drugs, weapon, human trafficking or murder for hire services, has created an online marketplace hidden from regulators and authorities, making it a perfect cover for dealing in illegal businesses with only limited need to face your suppliers or buyers.
This is what Harry Anderson comes across when deciding to look for his Swedish roots. Little does he know it will reveal a violent and criminal past and present. He wishes he hadn't traveled to Sweden. With Maria by his side he is trying to leave the past behind for good...but by leaving no stone unturned he enters a world of corruption, money laundering, human trafficking, and right wing zealots. A family and country he never thought were anything like what he discovers them to be...risking his and Maria's life, to find out more.
The story that unfolds ends up being his most personal and dangerous journalistic endeavor.
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