Swedish police struggle to stop pre-teen drug dealers
Police in Linköping in central Sweden have discovered a 12-year-old boy for trying to sell hashish on school grounds.
It is the second time police have caught the boy trying to sell drugs.
“It’s frightening, there’s something somewhere when it comes to adult supervision,” said Magnus Skoglund of the Linköping police to Sveriges Radio (SR).
Skoglund said he isn’t surprised, pointing out that those old enough to be prosecuted often get children younger than 15-years-old to transport and sell drugs.
But he admitted that it was unusual to recruit children as young as 12-years-old.
We have no legal options to go after something like this through an investigation, we have to have suspicions of a specific crime,” Skoglund told SR.
“In this case we hand things over to social services.”
Skoglund said he would support lowering Sweden’s age of criminal responsibility reduced from the current 15-years-old to twelve.
He added the point would not be to punish young children, but rather give police the power to perform searches in an effort to find hidden drugs.
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It is the second time police have caught the boy trying to sell drugs.
“It’s frightening, there’s something somewhere when it comes to adult supervision,” said Magnus Skoglund of the Linköping police to Sveriges Radio (SR).
Skoglund said he isn’t surprised, pointing out that those old enough to be prosecuted often get children younger than 15-years-old to transport and sell drugs.
But he admitted that it was unusual to recruit children as young as 12-years-old.
We have no legal options to go after something like this through an investigation, we have to have suspicions of a specific crime,” Skoglund told SR.
“In this case we hand things over to social services.”
Skoglund said he would support lowering Sweden’s age of criminal responsibility reduced from the current 15-years-old to twelve.
He added the point would not be to punish young children, but rather give police the power to perform searches in an effort to find hidden drugs.
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