Debate: Pål Jonson and drug kingpin in cockpit make $4.3bn deal

On 14 November, Pål Jonson arranged a new deal for SAAB by signing an agreement with Colombia for the sale of 17 JAS Gripen aircraft. The problem is that the US considers the Colombian president to be a drug lord. 

Gripen is a unique and flexible fighter aircraft that can take off and land on a straight road just 500 metres long. Now 17 of these aircraft will be sold to Colombia, writes Government Offices.

Benjamin Dousa hails the $4.3 billion deal:

The sale of JAS Gripen to Colombia is one of Sweden's largest export deals ever. It is a deal that strengthens both Swedish security and economy, and demonstrates the clear link between trade and security.

Pål Jonson, who acts as sales manager in the deal, says in a press release from the Government Offices that the sale is ”a clear acknowledgement of the competitiveness of the Swedish defence industry”. He adds: ”I look forward to deepening defence cooperation”.

In other words, Mr Jonson wants to sell more arms to Colombia.

The question is what the Pentagon thinks about it after the US implicitly threatened Colombia (like Venezuela) with military action to stop Colombian drug cartels.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard who visited Colombia in January and participated in the first high-level dialogue under the bilateral partnership between Sweden and Colombia, also praised the sale:

Sweden and Colombia have very good relations that go back a long way. I look forward to continuing to strengthen and broaden the co-operation between our countries.

The Swedish ministers who sell fighter jets to SAAB, instead of SAAB's own salesmen, are entangling themselves in the arms industry and ending up in a geopolitical loyalty soup because Trump also considers Gustavo Petro to be a drug lord in Central America.

The Atlantic, write on 5 November, 2025:

Last month, Donald Trump called Colombian President Gustavo Petro an ”illegal drug lord”. That gave Colombians cause for concern: the last country whose president Trump accused of running a drug business was Venezuela, and those accusations were used as justification to send a flotilla of warships to lie in wait off its coasts and blow up boats.

Torbjörn Sassersson, geopolitics

Photo: Pål Jonson on X