UAE, Sweden Arrest Seven Over $7.1M Crypto Laundering Ring Linked to Contract Killings

Police forces in the United Arab Emirates and Sweden said they jointly arrested seven people tied to an international money-laundering network that moved roughly 70 million Swedish krona (about $7.1 million) over a ten-month span. The alleged ringleader, a Swedish national who had been the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, was located and detained in the UAE, while six others were arrested in Sweden at the same time. Authorities have initiated legal proceedings against all seven suspects.

According to the UAE Ministry of Interior, the group used cash proceeds from criminal activity and redirected those funds to other criminal entities, employing cryptocurrencies to transfer and hide value. Investigators say tracing the crypto transactions and examining digital evidence helped reveal financial ties to additional criminal activity, including organized crime groups and contract killings.

UAE officials described the operation as the result of extensive searches, monitoring, and close coordination between the two countries, with direct intelligence sharing used to pinpoint the gang leader’s location. Brigadier Abdulaziz Al Ahmad, director general of the Federal Criminal Police at the UAE Ministry of Interior, said the country will keep targeting criminal networks, disrupting their funding sources and pursuing legal action against those exploiting its territory.

Swedish authorities welcomed the cooperation. Anders Wiberg, police commissioner and head of the Swedish Police Authority’s international division, said collaboration with the UAE was instrumental in achieving the arrests. The case comes as Sweden has urged its police to increase seizures of illicit digital assets; Swedish officials have previously warned that gang-related violence — including contract killings — has risen, with police reporting 23 bystanders killed and 30 wounded in gangland shootings over a recent three-year period.