Anti-corruption laws effectively deter public officials from engaging in the illicit production or distribution of drugs, and in the laundering of drug money. No illicit drugs are known to be cultivated or produced in significant amounts in Sweden. Foreign labs have efficient distribution systems in Sweden. Police attribute this to tight controls on precursor chemicals and, mainly, to a relatively low street price for amphetamines and other drugs. It is more profitable for criminals to smuggle drugs into Sweden than to produce them in Sweden in clandestine labs.
Drugs enter the country in commercial goods, over land, by mail, by air, and by ferry.
Authorities remain particularly concerned about the increase in illicit drug smuggling from the Baltics and Russia. A new concern is that East and Central Europe now produce synthetic drugs for Sweden. The Netherlands remain the source for approximately half of all amphetamines seized, but substantial amounts of amphetamines originate in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Police, Customs, and the Social Ministry regard Ecstasy as the biggest threat at present, since it is being marketed in aggressive ways to new groups, i.e., to very young middle-class users with no criminal record. Heroin base from labs in Turkey is often smuggled into Sweden through Germany by Kosovo Albanians, Iranians and Turks in cars.