Bust nets ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ accomplice
Swedish police reported on Sunday that Clark Olofsson, one of Sweden’s most notorious career criminals, was among six suspects arrested in a massive narcotics raid over the weekend.
According to police in Östergötland, Olofsson was arrested on Saturday night outside of Varberg in western Sweden on suspicions of serious drug crimes.
Olofsson, who now goes under the name Daniel Demuynck, was involved in the famous 1973 bank robbery after which the term “Stockholm syndrome” was coined.
Five other suspects were detained on Saturday night in the Varberg and Stockholm areas on suspicions of serious drugs crimes and complicity in drug crimes.
“Clark didn’t have a chance when the police strike team went into the house,” said an anonymous source to Sveriges Radio.
The raid was carried out by police in Östergötland in cooperation with National Criminal Investigation Department (Rikskriminalpolisen) as several of the suspects have ties to the Östergötland area.
On Sunday, police remained tight-lipped and didn’t want to offer many details about the operation.
“Today [Sunday] we are being extremely quiet. We can’t comment more at the moment,” said Östgötland police spokesperson Mikael Skog, to the TT news agency.
Arne Andersson of the National Criminal Investigation Department wouldn’t reveal the amount of narcotics seized in the operation.
“I can say that it includes cannabis and amphetamines,” he told TV4.
The International Public Prosecution Office in Stockholm will now lead the ensuing investigation.
“The investigation is brand new and we are being careful about what we say right now,” said Andersson.
According to Sveriges Radio, police had been spying on Demuynck and the other suspects for eight months prior to the raid.
Demuynck, who is now a Belgian citizen, has spent more than half his life in prison. His latest punishment came in 1999, when a court in the Danish town of Fredrikssund sentenced him to 14 years in prison for serious narcotics crimes for smuggling large quantities of amphetamines into Denmark.
He was released in 2005.
Olofsson, as Demuynck was previously known, was serving a prison sentence for attempted murder in August of 1973 when his friend Jan-Erik Olsson demanded that police negotiators bring Olofsson to the bank at Norrmalmstorg in central Stockholm where Olsson was holding four bank employees hostage.
Police took Olofsson out of prison and drove him to the bank, where he spent the next six days as an accomplice to one of Sweden’s most famous crimes.
The crisis eventually ended without incident when police sprayed gas into the bank vault where the captors where holding the hostages.
Following the Norrmalmstorg robbery, several of the hostages came to the defence of Olsson and Olofsson, leading Swedish criminologist Nils Bejerot to coin the term “Stockholm Syndrome” to refer to the way in which a hostage can sympathize with the hostage taker.
Comments
See Also
According to police in Östergötland, Olofsson was arrested on Saturday night outside of Varberg in western Sweden on suspicions of serious drug crimes.
Olofsson, who now goes under the name Daniel Demuynck, was involved in the famous 1973 bank robbery after which the term “Stockholm syndrome” was coined.
Five other suspects were detained on Saturday night in the Varberg and Stockholm areas on suspicions of serious drugs crimes and complicity in drug crimes.
“Clark didn’t have a chance when the police strike team went into the house,” said an anonymous source to Sveriges Radio.
The raid was carried out by police in Östergötland in cooperation with National Criminal Investigation Department (Rikskriminalpolisen) as several of the suspects have ties to the Östergötland area.
On Sunday, police remained tight-lipped and didn’t want to offer many details about the operation.
“Today [Sunday] we are being extremely quiet. We can’t comment more at the moment,” said Östgötland police spokesperson Mikael Skog, to the TT news agency.
Arne Andersson of the National Criminal Investigation Department wouldn’t reveal the amount of narcotics seized in the operation.
“I can say that it includes cannabis and amphetamines,” he told TV4.
The International Public Prosecution Office in Stockholm will now lead the ensuing investigation.
“The investigation is brand new and we are being careful about what we say right now,” said Andersson.
According to Sveriges Radio, police had been spying on Demuynck and the other suspects for eight months prior to the raid.
Demuynck, who is now a Belgian citizen, has spent more than half his life in prison. His latest punishment came in 1999, when a court in the Danish town of Fredrikssund sentenced him to 14 years in prison for serious narcotics crimes for smuggling large quantities of amphetamines into Denmark.
He was released in 2005.
Olofsson, as Demuynck was previously known, was serving a prison sentence for attempted murder in August of 1973 when his friend Jan-Erik Olsson demanded that police negotiators bring Olofsson to the bank at Norrmalmstorg in central Stockholm where Olsson was holding four bank employees hostage.
Police took Olofsson out of prison and drove him to the bank, where he spent the next six days as an accomplice to one of Sweden’s most famous crimes.
The crisis eventually ended without incident when police sprayed gas into the bank vault where the captors where holding the hostages.
Following the Norrmalmstorg robbery, several of the hostages came to the defence of Olsson and Olofsson, leading Swedish criminologist Nils Bejerot to coin the term “Stockholm Syndrome” to refer to the way in which a hostage can sympathize with the hostage taker.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.