Teenage hitmen: How Foxtrot network recruits children for contract killings across Europe
The Foxtrot crime network has been hiring teenagers as contract killers in Europe, offering cash but rarely paying them after arrests. Police taskforces have made hundreds of arrests, but the network's leader remains in Iran.
A European crime group has turned the recruitment of teenagers into a systematic method for carrying out contract killings. The Foxtrot Network, linked by police to the Iranian government, is suspected of around 35 murders since 2022. It has also been connected to several attacks against Israeli targets in Europe, including incidents involving hand grenades and explosives.
One of the most striking cases involves Atilla Azimov, an 18-year-old who shot and killed Murad Abdelkader, a 20-year-old student, in a Stockholm suburb last year. Azimov, hired by Foxtrot for the killing, later turned out to have murdered the wrong person. He is now serving a life sentence.
Police say teenagers are recruited through social media and given instructions in a gamified way, resembling computer games. Europol set up a taskforce called GRIMM to address the phenomenon, with 11 countries taking part: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The case of Johannes Natland, a Norwegian teenager convicted in London this week of conspiracy to murder, shows how the system works. Natland was promised about £21,000 for a killing in West Yorkshire. He was recruited online by a teenager using the alias Generalen, then guided by a Foxtrot member known as Agent 47. After flying to Manchester and collecting weapons hidden in woodland, he was arrested before the attack could take place.
Generalen is also linked to the recruitment of Azimov and another teenage killer in Sweden. None of the young hitmen are known to have been paid, as they were caught quickly. Investigative journalist Diamant Salihu says the network deliberately picks younger and younger teenagers, because they are more reckless and easier to manipulate.
GRIMM has made more than 280 arrests in its 15 months of operations, including several key suspects. Ali Shehad Ahmed, believed to be Agent 47, was detained in Iraq, while former rapper Mohamed Mohdhi was arrested in Tunisia. Foxtrot leader Rawa Majid remains in Iran, where he is believed to have agreed to carry out attacks for the regime. The threat is not over: rival groups, including the Dalen Network, have begun using the same methods, according to police and experts.
