01/23/2024 7:24 pm (current 01/23/2024 7:24 pm)
Criminal gangs have caused growing problems ©APA/Ritzau Scanpix
The Danish government wants to finally put an end to drug trafficking in Copenhagen's hippie community, Christiania. “Pusher Street”, famous for cannabis trafficking and gang crime, will be closed this year, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard announced on Tuesday on TV2 Kosmopol.
At the end of August, the residents of Christiania themselves asked the authorities for help in the fight against drug trafficking. A few days earlier, a 30-year-old man with links to organized crime was shot in Christiania. It was the fourth fatal shooting in the drug scene around “Pusher Street” since 2020.
Justice Minister Hummelgaard said an action plan had been drawn up together with Christiania residents. It will be implemented “in the next six months”. The use and sale of so-called soft drugs are officially banned in the autonomous community, but until now they have been tolerated – but criminal groups are now competing for the drug business, and this is causing more and more problems.
A group of hippies founded “Freistadt Christiania” in a former barracks in 1971. Around 900 people live in the state-tolerated autonomous community and its own laws and rules apply. Around half a million tourists visit Christiania every year.