The symbiosis between the more serious and the increased violence, the access to weapons and the smuggling of drugs and alcohol, among other things, must be broken.
Every year, dozens of drugs are smuggled into the country, and often illegal drug trafficking is closely linked to gang settlements and revenge campaigns of various kinds.
Drug trafficking is a central part of organized crime in Sweden and the problem picture differs in many respects from other negative societal challenges through its wide scope. Not least because of the negative consequences it generates for society and for the addicts' own lives and health.
The profits from the drug trade constitute an important source of income for organized crime. They are used for investment and financing of criminal schemes in the drug trade but also in other criminal areas.
The Customs Agency has an important role in the crime prevention work and can help solve many problems that we in Sweden face, and at the same time contribute to increased security in society. However, this requires that the authority has sufficient resources to be able to carry out its mission in a legally secure manner that does not jeopardize the safety of citizens or staff.
Socio-economic pay-off reinforcements are paid to the Customs Administration. Each krone invested in the Customs Administration saves more kronor in other stages; with the police, the health service and the social authorities.
For several years, governments have cut back on appropriations to the Customs Administration and have seen the Customs staff reduce without doing anything to the problem. The result we have seen is several customs sites that are empty for shorter periods and this is of course known by criminal groups.
The Customs Administration's expertise has not been fully utilized in the crime prevention work, and it has contributed to additional work for already hard-pressed resources at the police, among others.
Despite the many years of under-financing and under-staffing, the Customs Agency reports large seizures of drugs every year.
In 2016, Customs had a successful year in the fight against drugs, and also in 2017 and 2018 major seizures were made. 2019 will not stand out - every day drugs are seized at our borders.
In recent years, Tull-Kust has intensively clarified the consequences of the sub-staffing at the Customs Administration and stated that the number of customs officers must increase by 500 in order to be able to be in more places and for more hours of the day than today.
I can conclude that there is now a political agreement to strengthen the Customs Administration. This is positive, but the resource reinforcements must not only remain, but also be followed by further increases to enable and ensure continued reconstruction of the customs operations.
With more customs officers in service, more and larger seizures can be made, which facilitates work for police and social services, among other things.
It is the grants that ultimately determine how large the Customs Administration can have around Sweden. A coherent strategy and grant strengthening that will allow 500 more customs officers across the country is the right path for Customs to be able to effectively contribute to increased security in society.