In the name of the law, for several weeks, police officers, the Customs Service and heroinists have met to gain an insight into how heroin sales look today, where the heroin comes from, and what is being done to stop the increase.
According to the police in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, heroin sales have increased after the pandemic. This is because the prices of the drug have fallen. But while the drug has become easier to get hold of, the police lack resources to work against the heroin market.
– Today, the police are forced to work towards specific goals. What is most known to the public are shootings and gang criminals. Even if the people doing the heroin are gang criminals, they don’t shoot each other to death, so we haven’t had room to work this way again. It will be a bit like a haven for them, says Martin, who is a drug detective at Norrmalmspolisen in Stockholm.
Between the summer of 2018 and the turn of the year 2020-2021, the police and the Swedish Customs Service carried out targeted operations against heroin smuggling and sales. During this time, both the police and customs made large heroin seizures.
The efforts, in combination with a global corona pandemic and closed national borders, made it difficult to get hold of heroin in Sweden for a period. According to the Swedish Customs Administration, one gram, which today costs around SEK 500, could then cost up to SEK 4,000.
“Julia” has a steady job and a fiance. Very few know that she has been addicted to heroin for three years. An addiction that costs her SEK 15-45,000 a month.
– I behave like any other Svensson, with the only difference being that I use heroin, says “Julia”, whose real name is something else.
Hear her, Markus who previously took heroin, drug detective Martin and several others about the heroin situation today.
Host: Martin Wicklin.
Reporter: Alexandra Sannemalm.
Recordist: Johan Hörnqvist.
Producer: Linus Lindahl.