It is described as the biggest target against serious organized crime in Sweden.

The verdict has now been handed down against the 31 people who have been charged in the so-called Encro case.

A total of 28 people with links to the Vårbynätverket are sentenced - of which 26 of them to a total of 147 years in prison for involvement and involvement in extensive serious organized crime in Stockholm - including several for the kidnapping of a famous Swedish artist last year.

The designated leader of the Spring Village Network, Chihab Lamouri, 33 - for whom prosecutor Anna Stråth had demanded life imprisonment - was sentenced to 17 years and 10 months in prison for, among other things, attempted murder, stamping murder, kidnapping, robbery, attempted aggravated extortion, general destruction. extremely serious drug crime, extremely serious gun crime and serious money laundering crime.

Managed the network from Spain

According to the district court, the 33-year-old has run the organization with a military structure from his residence in Spain.

With the help of captains, minions, aides and performers in Stockholm, he has ensured that the criminal network has managed to turn multi-million sums into extensive drug and arms trafficking.

According to the verdict, he alone has decided over the network members' weapons, ammunition, explosives, drugs, apartments and cars that have been used in the business, as well as drawn up patrol schedules and charged a membership fee.

He was arrested in September following a European arrest warrant.

To help him, Lamouri, along with the rest of the network, has used Encrochat - the encrypted messenger service that French police managed to crack last year - and which now forms the basis of the prosecutor's evidence.

It clearly states, according to the district court, that he has directed and ordered the members to commit crimes without him having had to deal with it himself.

In one of the conversations, Lamouri writes, among other things, which goes by the alias Mujaheed, about a planned bombing of a car dealer in Stockholm.

It says he is in Madrid.

Followed by the call: "Then we kidnap his brother".

The chats also describe how disciplinary sanctions are performed by the members.

Among other things, he writes that they are "an army" and "in an army, the commander must punish his soldiers".

Denies crime

The 33-year-old leader, and other convicts, deny any wrongdoing.

However, the district court considers that the chat logs are a sufficient basis for proving the defendants' participation in the crime that has emerged during the period of two and a half months the prosecution applies.

- We have landed in the assessment that the Encro messages have not been a difficult mass of text.

We have found that we have been able to trust messages, says legal judge Kian Amraée.

In addition to the leader, a 27-year-old man who is the leader of another network is sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Another member of the Vårbynätverket's top tier to prison for 12 years and a former youth national team player in football, who had a central role in the business, to prison for 11 years.

Others are sentenced to between six months and ten years in prison.

One person receives closed youth care and a daily fine.

At the same time, three people are acquitted.

23 of the convicts will be detained until they serve their prison sentences.