Young guns for hire - the teenage hitmen recruited to kill across Europe

What the report says

BBC World News reports that Europe’s Foxtrot Network is increasingly using teenagers as paid contract killers in what officials describe as “violence-as-a-service.” The group is thought to have been linked to about 35 murders across Europe since 2022, along with attacks and attempted attacks on Israeli targets. The BBC says the network recruits young people online, gives instructions in a game-like style, and often avoids paying because many of the would-be killers are arrested before an assignment is completed.

The article focuses on several cases in Sweden, Norway and the UK. In Stockholm, 18-year-old Atilla Azimov was jailed for life after killing the wrong man in a mistaken shooting that he carried out for Foxtrot. In London, a Norwegian teenager, Johannes Natland, was convicted of conspiracy to murder for a planned hit in West Yorkshire. BBC reporting says investigators traced the plot through a chain of online handles and logistics contacts linked to Foxtrot.

The network’s leader, Rawa Majid, is reported to have left Sweden and later Turkey and is now believed to be in Tehran. The BBC says police suspect some attacks were carried out on behalf of the Iranian regime, while others were tied to Foxtrot’s drug-related turf conflicts. Europol’s OTF GRIMM taskforce, involving 11 countries, has made more than 280 arrests, but key suspects remain outside reach. The story highlights how organized crime groups are exploiting vulnerable teenagers across borders and complicating efforts by police to stop the violence.