STOCKHOLM, July 7, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A Swedish court on Monday jailed 11 people for their involvement in the country's largest ever seizure of cocaine.

A container holding 1.3 tonnes of cocaine with an estimated street value of 1.2 billion kronor ($126 million) was seized in April 2024 in the port of Norvik south of Stockholm, the authorities said.

Prosecutors charged 17 people with crimes connected to the seizure.
The district court in Sodertorn, south of the capital, found 11 people guilty of various drug offences, while six were acquitted.

A 25-year-old man, who was also found guilty of attempted murder and involving a minor in crime, was handed a sentence of 16 years and 10 months.

Eight of the convicted were jailed for terms ranging from 18 months to five years and four months, while two more were sentenced to juvenile detention.

Prosecutors argued that the case was linked to one of Sweden's biggest crime organisations, Rumba.

The alleged leader of the group, 35-year-old Ismail Abdo, was arrested in Turkey last week.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement last Friday that the man arrested in Turkey, who they did not name, cannot be extradited because he holds Turkish citizenship as well as Swedish.

The seizure last year beat the previous record, a 2006 haul of almost the same weight but with far lower purity, the customs agency told AFP.
Sweden, once known for its low crime rates, has struggled for years to rein in organised crime.

Police say 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.