The Icelandic police are monitoring whether organized crime groups from Eastern Europe are trying to infiltrate Iceland, reports Morgunbladid today. According to Morgunbladid, organized crime groups from abroad, including drug trafficking organizations, seem to be eying a possible move into the Icelandic market. This parallels developments in many other countries in Europe where the Eastern European mafia has already gained a foothold.
On Tuesday, Morgunbladid reported that the Norwegian police feared that a war could break out amongst the Eastern European mafia gangs in a power struggle in the Oslo underworld.
Smári Sigurðsson, head of the international affairs section of the Icelandic Police, says that this news is not surprising, Oslo has completely changed in the last few years and that his colleagues there have had to fight crime gangs for some time, “Our experience shows, that sooner or later, everything from Europe comes here (to Iceland) but our small size makes it more difficult for something like this to gain a foothold here.”
