Sportbladet reveals: Connections between hooligan environments and criminal gangs
Updated 13.31 | Published 13.22
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full screen Photo: Police’s preliminary investigation
In the middle of the Stockholm derby in the Allsvenskan, a now 21-year-old man jumps down from Djurgården’s grandstand section.
Barely four months later, the police find a loaded pistol hidden in his stairwell.
Now Sportbladet can reveal the connections between the criminal gangs and football’s organized companies.
- Sportbladet reveals connections between hooligan environments within Swedish football and criminal gangs, such as the Vårby network and the Foxtrot network.
- Individuals suspected of crimes have been active hooligans, such as a 21-year-old man charged with aggravated weapons offenses and assault.
- According to the police, the connection between the hooligans and the criminality is individual-based rather than there being specific criminal gangs that are drawn to the supporter activities.
ⓘ The summary is made with the support of AI tools from OpenAI and quality assured by Aftonbladet. Read our AI policy here.
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November 29, 2022, at 1:12 p.m. Kronoberg Prison, Stockholm.
Robin Hedman Johansson sits in an interrogation room at the detention center in Kronoberg. The 30-year-old is suspected of involvement in a murder and is asked to explain how he came into contact with the criminal MC environment.
– I am an old football hooligan. So I’ve been going to soccer a lot. It will be the same thing. The next step from the football hooligan, it’s to a motorcycle club, usually. At least if you have some sense in your head.
Robin is later acquitted, but in recent weeks has been hunted around the world in another case. The murder of the teenage boys Layth and Mohamed.
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fullscreenRobin Hedman Johansson is internationally wanted as a suspect in the murder of two 14-year-old boys. Photo: Police Preliminary Investigation
Two 14-year-olds who were found executed and dumped in their respective wooded areas, where one of the police’s theories is that the murders were revenge for missions the boys failed to complete for the Foxtrot network.
A network Hedman Johansson, according to the police, showed his loyalty to.
The 31-year-old, who denies the crime, is also suspected of having ordered two 17-year-olds to shoot at Bandido’s premises with the order to “blow the whole shit up”.
On Thursday, Robin Hedman Johansson was finally arrested when he landed at Arlanda.
But are his words about the connection between Swedish football and gang crime really true?
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full screen Photo: Jesper Zerman / Bildbyrån
May 28, 2023, at 4:47 p.m. Tele 2 Arena, Stockholm
Djurgården face AIK in a hot Stockholm derby in the tenth round of the Allsvenskan in football. The away team has started the season badly. The players are under pressure and talk before the match about “a war we must win”.
1 hour and 47 minutes after the 15:00 kick-off time, a masked man jumps down from Djurgården’s grandstand section and walks up to the protective net facing the pitch. Then he turns away, wanders down the heel section and gestures to the zoo crowd.
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full screen Photo: Police’s preliminary investigation
When Djurgården’s support manager intervenes, he is pushed in the stomach and has his hands knocked away by the man. After discussions with other masked people in the grandstand section, the man then chooses to return to the grandstand.
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full screen Photo: Police’s preliminary investigation
Only a minute later, however, he jumps down again and gestures for others to follow.
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full screen Photo: Police’s preliminary investigation
This time the supporter manager manages to get the man up in the stands again.
The person in the picture is identified by the police as a currently 21-year-old man, who is described as a “risk supporter”. When he is charged with violating the public order law after the events at Tele 2 Arena, it is at the same time only one of four charges.
The others relate to assault, doping offenses and serious weapons offences.
October 4, 2023, around 10:00 AM. Vårby Allé, Huddinge.
Under a loose lid on top of a mailbox, a loaded Glock pistol is found.
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full screen Photo: Police’s preliminary investigation
After the police find the weapon, the man from Tele 2 Arena comes down with the elevator.
He lives with his family at the address and now goes out through the front door to continue past the next stairwell where another policeman simultaneously discovered cartridges and a magazine in an identical hiding place.
Later, the man’s DNA is found on the weapon and his fingerprints on the bag of cartridges.
He is therefore charged with serious weapons offences.
During the search of the 21-year-old’s house, two mobile phones were also found. One of them is blue “with Djurgården IF as background”.
Part of the Vårby network
According to the police, the man has been part of the Vårby network for several years. He has been convicted of a number of crimes such as serious drug offences, drug offenses and threatening an official – and has been suspected of far more crimes than that.
A police officer testifies in the preliminary investigation report, among other things, about how the man “is suspected of an ugly assault in the hooligan environment around Djurgården football”.
There, he has since some time ago managed to get an access ban that applies until April 2025.
A police inspector also describes with resignation that the man is “probably the person on whom I and colleagues within the Huddinge Police have written the most reports of concern to social services over the past years”.
The man denies both violations of the Public Order Act and aggravated weapons offences.
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full screen Photo: Johanna Lundberg / Bildbyrån
17 April 2017, at 15:00. Friends Arena, Stockholm
AIK receives Hammarby in the football allsvenskan.
The guests from the south beat their Stockholm rival 2–1 after a late decision. The aftermath is relatively little about disturbances, but a ball boy needs medical attention after a bang shot detonates in his vicinity.
After the match, however, an access ban is issued against a man who, according to the prosecutor’s office, participated in a violent riot inside the arena during the ongoing game.
The man is 21 years old at the time, and already known from incidents connected to disturbances in football contexts.
In 2015, he was found with two Bengals in his underwear near the Tele 2 Arena in connection with the Stockholm derby between Djurgården and AIK. In 2017, he was banned from entering for “promoting flight” during an AIK match at Friends Arena.
When issuing it, it is established that the man then also behaved disorderly in connection with both football and ice hockey matches.
In 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 he is sentenced for drug offences. He has been singled out as a member of the Foxtrot network, according to Aftonbladet’s information. The man also appeared in a preliminary investigation into bombings that were linked to the wave of violence last winter (though not as a suspect).
Pointed out as training in violence
The three examples show points of contact between the hooligan environment and organized crime. Several sources also confirm to Sportbladet that the police’s experience is that the organizations have common denominators.
– Our experience is that there are people from various networks and from the MC culture who also belong to the football companies, but that their activities are kept out.
Police information Sportbladet has seen confirms that there have also been previous contacts between hooligan groups and criminal elements. Then in the form of left- and right-wing extreme groups as well as the MC environment around the Hells Angels with subgroups.
Within right-wing extremist environments, football hooliganism has at the same time been pointed out as a good training in violence.
Now the connections have been broadened further to also deal with links between individual risk supporters and several different criminal networks.
Connects to the Dalen network
Information shows how, for example, Hammarby’s violent phalanx is connected to the Dalen network, while AIK’s and Djurgården’s have common denominators with the MC milieu around the Hells Angels.
A source, in turn, describes how the gangs themselves have no interest in football, but that individuals are attracted to it.
– Then I think that the hooligans can be used as useful idiots.
The data do not describe the football companies as particularly dangerous to society, but that the members are active in their sports associations and try to influence executives on the boards.
A tendency that is also described is that younger groups take on more. People with capital for violence who are responsible for more disturbances during the matches and have less respect for the power of order.
“Is on an individual level”
Sportbladet has asked the police nationally and in Stockholm for an official comment on the information, but has been told that no such interview can be carried out right now.
In a written comment, the police instead announce that:
“There are individuals with network connections in the supporter environment, but that is on an individual level. There are no specific criminal gangs that are drawn to the supporter activities. Most often, it is about individuals who have grown up in an area with a strong connection to the Allsvenskan teams and are supporters. Whether those individuals are drawn to the ultra environment or to football for the sense of belonging, however, cannot be known.
The police are aware of which network criminal gangs individuals belong to, but it is not something that the police comment on.”
2024-02-22 12:23:37
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