Violent crime among young Norwegians is often blamed on “Swedish conditions” that have crossed  the border. Local youth have long gotten into trouble, though, and a few recent cases have been raising eyebrows.

A grenade attack in the center of Oslo sparked alarm this week, but youth crime is nothing new in Norway. A teenager from Stavanger has been held in a high-security British prison, after traveling there to allegedly carry out a murder for which he’d be paid, while another 16-year-old still in Stavanger is charged with running his own “crime as a service” network.

Police believe the 16-year-old was involved in the shooting of a man in Lund, Sweden earlier this year. Newspaper Aftenposten reported last week that he’s also now charged with arranging the murder of another young man in Stockholm.

The 16-year-old Norwegian is the first to be charged with organizing violent attacks and murders for international criminal networks. He told Aftenposten that he “took contact” with the Swedish Foxtrot network when he was just 14, and has since been recruiting young criminals himself. He’s also charged with trying to organize the stabbing of a police official’s son in Stavanger that went wrong, but helped lead to his arrest and pending court case.

While some conservative politicians in Norway warn of “Swedish conditions” crossing the border, Justice Minister Astri Aas-Hansen of the Labour Party dismissed that as such. “We have Norwegian conditions in Norway,” she said on Wednesday, and claims to be addressing them.

NewsinEnglish.no staff