Europol says Danish police tied to dozens of NVE network cases

Europol has worked with Danish police on dozens of cases linked to sadistic NVE networks, Europol antiterror chief Anna Sjöberg told DR News.

The networks circulate videos of assaults, self-harm and, in the most serious cases, school attacks. The planned attack on Hadsten School was one example in which authorities suspect links to the networks, according to information obtained by DR.

Sjöberg said Europol and Denmark have a close working relationship on cases involving victims and perpetrators from Denmark, although not every case involving Danish police necessarily concerns a Danish victim or perpetrator. She declined to say exactly how many cases involved Danes.

Europol began noticing the development about three years ago, and Sjöberg said the threat posed by the NVE networks is continuing to grow. She said the networks are dangerous both to victims who are groomed in the groups and to society as a whole, noting that several NVE groups are considered terrorist organisations.

Some parts of the networks, she said, praise school attacks such as the one planned at Hadsten School. “All countries should be concerned because this is a global phenomenon,” Sjöberg told DR.

In less than a year, Europol has identified nearly 180 perpetrators and protected eight people from imminent threats to their lives, Sjöberg said. Denmark is one of 31 countries taking part in Europol’s Project Compass, which aims to combat NVE networks.

In the Hadsten case, police have said the three teenagers under investigation communicated on Discord and Telegram, platforms where NVE networks are widespread. Members are typically recruited through open groups before being pressured in closed groups to share compromising material involving themselves and others.

One form of abuse involves getting a victim to write their alias in blood on a wall or cut it into their own body.

Sjöberg said technology alone is not the best defence against the networks. She said an educated and supported young population was the strongest protection, warning that the networks could destabilise society by damaging young people. She also stressed the importance of building resilience against them.

Neither the Danish National Police nor the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, known as PET, agreed to be interviewed. PET said it would not comment on specific cases or partnerships, but described a Western threat picture increasingly marked by extreme violent incidents resembling terrorism without a clear ideological framework.

PET said it is targeting extremism, including online extremism, through efforts to remove extremist material from the internet, operational measures against groups and individuals, and preventive work.