Swedish Drug Kingpin Arrested in Thai Luxury Villa

The long arm of Swedish law reaches even into Thai luxury villas. One of the men identified as being behind the latest "Blocket for drugs" has now bitterly experienced this. The operation is yet another success for Swedish police abroad, sending a message to criminals that they cannot hide.

Earlier this summer, the international marketplace Archetyp was shut down in an international operation where Swedish police played a key role. Sweden has long struggled with various versions of what has been described as "Blocket for drugs."

Different versions of sites like Flugsvamp have been shut down repeatedly. The men behind these sites have been sentenced to around ten years in prison each, and sellers have been punished with hundreds of years in prison. The men at the top have earned hundreds of millions in brokerage fees from drug sellers on Flugsvamp.

The National IT Crime Center of the police has successfully learned to expose masterminds and sellers by tracking cryptocurrency transactions.

This knowledge became crucial when Archetyp was shut down, leaving 3,000 drug sellers worldwide without a marketplace. Several of the largest sellers were Swedish and are linked, according to Swedish police, to serious organized crime.

Three Swedes are also identified as responsible for the operation of Archetyp. They have been detained for aiding and abetting particularly serious drug offenses.

One of the men was arrested this summer in a luxury villa near the notorious tourist resort of Pattaya in Thailand. The case involves a 37-year-old man from Jönköping who acted as a "global moderator" on Archetyp. He has previously been investigated for bitcoin transactions in Sweden and has now been paid in cryptocurrency.

According to the prosecutor, "on behalf of the administrator(s), to maintain the operation of the marketplace, he resolved disputes as a global moderator between buyers and sellers in drug deals."

In Thailand, the arrest has been widely publicized. The police have stated that it strengthens "the country's image" and "confidence in law enforcement." Thai media have published images from the arrest and have been careful to mention the names of all police chiefs involved in the arrest of the Swede.

Thailand was previously known as a gangster paradise where several Swedish criminals fled. Now, that is supposed to end.

The extradition process was very smooth. It took only a few weeks before he was sent to Sweden, and he has now been detained here.

Björn Eriksson, head of the National IT Crime Center, is very pleased with this and emphasizes that Swedish criminals should not think they can hide abroad. He is partly right. In recent years, Swedish criminals have been arrested in countries like Colombia and Chile to be extradited to Sweden.

However, there are countries that remain problematic. In Turkey, several Swedes have been arrested but not delivered to Sweden.

One example is Alexander Gustafsson, who was sentenced to over eleven years in prison after earning 315 million kronor from running Flugsvamp 2.0. He fled to the gangster paradise of Turkey before the verdict but was arrested over a year ago, and since then, nothing has happened.