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The 35-year-old – one of Sweden's most wanted criminals – was arrested by Turkish security forces during a raid.
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The head of one of Sweden’s biggest crime organisations, accused of instigating a surge in violent crime, has been arrested in Turkey, Swedish police said Friday.
Police did not identify the man by name but Swedish media named his as 35-year-old Ismail Abdo, head of the Rumba crime organisation and alleged to have been orchestrating operations from abroad.
Abdo is one of Sweden’s most wanted criminals, with an international arrest warrant issued for him in 2024.
Organised crime in Sweden
The Scandinavian country, once known for its low crime rates, has struggled for years to rein in organised crime.
Criminal networks are involved in drug and arms trafficking, welfare fraud, and regular shootings and bombings that have plagued the country in recent years.
The networks are also reported to have infiltrated Sweden’s welfare sector, local politics, legal and education system as well as juvenile detention care.
The leaders of the criminal networks increasingly operate from abroad, orchestrating murders and attacks via social media and often recruiting young children under the age of criminal responsibility to carry out the attacks.
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Most wanted
Abdo once led the Foxtrot crime network together with Rawa Majid — Sweden’s other most wanted criminal — and the two are suspected of having controlled large parts of the Swedish drug market.
But the pair fell out in 2023, and a wave of ruthless, escalating violence was triggered when Abdo’s mother was shot dead in September 2023 in an act of revenge.
Abdo’s Rumba gang has since waged a violent feud against Majid and Foxtrot.
Abdo’s arrest
Abdo was arrested in a raid conducted by Turkish security forces, police said.
“In a law enforcement operation in Turkey, Turkish police have today arrested a Swedish man who for many years has been suspected of drug-related crimes and instigating serious violent crimes in Sweden,” police said in a statement.
“The arrest is the result of targeted work over time between Turkish and Swedish judicial systems,” Mats Berggren, acting deputy chief at the Swedish police’s National Operations Department (NOA), said in the statement.
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