The list of charges against gang leader Ildar Galiyev is long and winding. It includes, among other things, murder, attempted murder and orders for bombings. In total, the 26-year-old is suspected of more than 25 crimes.
District Attorney Mats Ihlbom, who has led the effort to track down and extradite Ildar Galiyev, says it may well be the largest indictment ever brought against a single person.
Galiyev, who was arrested in Greece in June 2024 and extradited to Sweden in February 2026, initially worked as an enforcer in the notorious Dalen network.
- From the beginning he was reportedly a form of torpedo. Then he rose in the hierarchy and ended up in the upper echelon. He later went abroad and continued to orchestrate various acts of violence, says Mats Ihlbom, who is one of five prosecutors in the case.
Many of the crimes for which Ildar Galiyev is now being prosecuted are characterized by a brutality that Sweden had not previously experienced before the so-called wave of violence swept over the country. Among other things, he is suspected of ordering the bombing in Fullerö, which cost the life of a 24-year-old student teacher. Neither she nor her family had any connection to crime – they just happened to live next door to the house the attack was actually aimed at, a home owned by relatives of gang leader Rawa Majid.
Forensic specialist Nils Myhr was on the scene early after the explosion.
- My first thought was that it looked like a war zone. It is the most powerful detonation I have ever seen. The charge was extremely oversized, he says.
- Then, of course, there was also the knowledge that a completely innocent woman lost her life.
The explosion took place in September 2023, a month when a total of twelve people lost their lives in various acts of violence in Sweden. The indictment against Ildar Galiyev suggests that he had a very central role in this bloody development. Nils Myhr says that the Fullerö explosion became a kind of macabre crescendo after the police noticed how the levels of violence kept escalating. Now he is very happy about the indictment against Ildar Galiyev.
- There is something so cursed in the eyes that those damn elves sit in another country and order this type of crime and do not give a thought to the consequences. But now we are also starting to reach those who are higher up in the hierarchies.
The criminologist Manne Gerell shares the prosecutor's assessment that the current indictment is one of the most comprehensive ever in Sweden that has been directed against a single person. He adds that there have been reports and rumors of criminals being behind a large number of murders - but that this has not led to prosecution.
- Five to ten years ago, it might have only stopped at rumours. In this case, it leads to prosecution. It might say something about how well the police and prosecutors are doing, he says.
Ildar Galiyev grew up in Dalen in southern Stockholm, where the network with the same name emerged in the 2010s. As a teenager, he was placed in Sis homes to break his destructive lifestyle. Instead, he continued to be convicted of crimes and subject to new investigations.
Galiyev is singled out by the police as one of the most violent men during the bloody gang conflict between the Dale Network and Foxtrot, which escalated in 2023. He is repeatedly described as the gang's torpedo.
Just like many other leading criminals, Galiyev left Sweden during the wave of violence. In 2024, he was arrested in Greece, where he was convicted of weapons and drug offences. He was extradited to Sweden at the beginning of the year after serving the Greek prison sentence.
In recent years, a long line of men in the top echelons of the Dalen network have been arrested abroad, which has greatly affected the gang's influence. Last week, the suspected violence coordinator Emin Muqa Kulic was extradited to Sweden. Since earlier, the designated leader Mikael Ahlström Tenezos has been in custody awaiting prosecution.
The preliminary investigation in the case with Ildar Galiyev covers around 30,000 pages.
- It is gigantic, it is the biggest investigation I have seen, says Mats Ihlbom.
The trial begins on November 3 and will then continue until the end of March next year.
- One can have opinions that it will cost enormous money. But we have to somehow put plasters on all these wounds, says Mats Ihlbom.
Ildar Galiyev's defender Markus Bergdahl has previously stated to DN that his client "disputes responsibility for the alleged acts for which he is in custody".
