Well, some of the gangs are ran from abroad but absolutely exist in our home turf. But it's true we can't simply arrest the gang leaders, and there are people waiting to take the place of existing middle management as they are imprisoned.

The two root causes of our gang problem is the amount of money drug buyers want to spend, and that it's still possible to combine crime with clean business and launder money through that.

I live next door to a handful small businesses that each employ 2-3 people full time, have maybe 2-3 customers per day paying for services costing about 200-300 kronor (10 minute hair cuts, tanning salons, car reconditioning, 10 minute tire changes, nail sculpture), and they still make a yearly profit of between 0.5 to 2 million kronor according to public records. They are all staffed by people in their 20s that mostly hang around all day. I would assume these businesses are quite cash heavy even though everyone uses card payments nowadays. They are generally owned by people whose main business is property ownership, restaurants and construction, who keep a bunch of smaller businesses on the side. I don't think the state has the resources to even begin looking into this.

As a privacy nut I have always wanted to keep cash but I'm starting to second guess myself.