Immigrant crime gangs

Gangs of young immigrant criminals are becoming a menace in Copenhagen:

They have become Copenhagen´s most serious criminal problem, increasing their share of police statistics for violence, threats, burglaries and muggings year by year. Gangs of young immigrants are climbing the criminal ladder, and the police predict they will challenge biker gangs as the masters of organized crime in Denmark in a few years.

"We see increasing signs of street gangs popping up and becoming more professional in night box robberies, drug dealing, serious threats and vendettas," Troels Ørting Jørgensen, head of the State Police National Intelligence Center (NEC), told daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten. "It has surpassed anything we can call street crime."

Copenhagen Police Commissioner Hanne Bech Hansen said the development was a cause for concern.

"Our biggest crime problem at this time stems from maladjusted, young criminals of foreign descent," Hansen said. "They are much too conspicuous in the statistics, which is something we need to react to right now. Otherwise we´ll have a serious crime problem, which will affect the town for the next two or three decades."

She said 82 percent of youngsters who were brought before a judge in Copenhagen last year were of foreign descent.