The conviction of a 19-year-old Norwegian by London’s Old Bailey for conspiracy to commit murder in West Yorkshire has drawn renewed attention to a new and particularly dangerous form of organized crime spreading across Europe.
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According to the BBC, the notorious Foxtrot criminal network is behind the case. European authorities say the network recruits teenagers through social media and encrypted messaging apps, turning them into contract killers.
The case is just one example of a phenomenon experts call “Violence-as-a-Service” (VaaS). It is a new operating model for criminal organizations, which commission murders and attacks by exploiting vulnerable young people, enticing them with large sums of money and treating them as disposable.
According to Europol, the phenomenon is spreading rapidly across northern Europe and is now considered one of the greatest challenges facing security authorities.
The Foxtrot gang and its links to Iran
At the center of the investigations is the Foxtrot Network, one of Sweden’s most violent criminal organizations. European authorities estimate that since 2022, the network has been responsible for around 35 murders, as well as dozens of attempted murders and other attacks, including operations targeting Israeli interests in Europe using grenades and explosive devices.
The organization is suspected of having established ties with the Iranian regime, particularly after 2023, when its leader, Rawa Majid, fled Sweden and settled in Tehran.
According to Swedish authorities and investigative journalists, Majid is suspected of working with Iran to organize attacks against opponents of the regime, journalists and Israeli targets. The British government imposed sanctions on him and the Foxtrot network in April 2025.
Rawa Majid (left), head of the Foxtrot network, with Ali Shehad Ahmed, whom authorities consider a key figure in the organization
Murders are organized like a video game
The most shocking aspect of this phenomenon is the way young hitmen are recruited.
According to Europol’s GRIMM operational task force, contact is made almost exclusively through social media and encrypted apps such as Signal. Orders are issued step by step, in a manner resembling a video game.
Recruiters use aliases inspired by popular video games, such as “Agent 47,” the name of the main character in the Hitman series.
The young hitmen are sent maps, videos, instructions, GPS coordinates and the locations of hidden weapons and money. They are treated as “players” who must complete missions.
One striking example is that of 18-year-old Attila Azimov. In February 2025, he repeatedly shot a 20-year-old student, Murad Abdelkader, outside Stockholm.
The young man was returning from a shift at a McDonald’s restaurant when he was shot. The attacker shot him several times before firing the fatal bullet into his head. But he had killed the wrong person. Azimov is now serving a life sentence.
Most are never paid
Despite promises of rewards worth tens of thousands of euros, most young hitmen never receive the money they were promised.
Criminal organizations know that the perpetrators are arrested almost immediately after the attacks and therefore avoid paying them.
“They do not care at all if the teenagers are arrested. If they are arrested, they can no longer demand the money they were promised,” Swedish investigative journalist Diamant Salihu explains.
A similar case involved Norwegian national Johannes Natland, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in Britain. The young man had grown up in a wealthy family of journalists, but later became involved in drug use and faced serious mental health problems.
He received an online message that read: “Killing in England – 270,000 kroner” (around £21,000).
Foxtrot paid for his one-way plane ticket to Manchester, continuously instructed him through Signal and showed him where weapons and money had been hidden.
He was arrested before learning who his target would be. Authorities are continuing to investigate whether the planned killing was a criminal execution or a politically motivated attack linked to Iran.
Investigations revealed that a 16-year-old known by the alias “Generalen” recruited minors to carry out murders on behalf of the Foxtrot network. He is suspected of having hired both Azimov and other young people who committed murders in Sweden as hitmen.
His activities were uncovered after he attempted to arrange the murder of the 14-year-old son of a Norwegian police officer. One of the minors he had recruited alerted the authorities. “Generalen” was sentenced in May 2026 to 14 years in prison.
Europol takes on the new criminal model
To combat the phenomenon, the OTF GRIMM operational task force was established, bringing together 11 European countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Iceland.
During its first 15 months of operation, more than 280 arrests were made, including key figures in the Foxtrot network.
However, the organization’s leader remains in Tehran and is still believed to be actively directing the network’s operations.
European security services warn that the Violence-as-a-Service model is no longer limited to Foxtrot.
Other criminal organizations, including rival gangs, have also begun using the same method to recruit minors online.
The phenomenon, which began in Sweden, has now spread across Scandinavia, northern Europe and the United Kingdom.
European authorities are concerned about a new generation of organized crime that exploits young people’s vulnerability and the power of social media to create a new model of violence for hire.
