Young guns for hire - the teenage hitmen recruited to kill across Europe
European law enforcement agencies are investigating the 'Foxtrot Network,' an organized crime group that recruits teenagers via social media to commit contract killings. These 'violence-as-a-service' tactics have led to dozens of murders across Europe.
Why it matters
The rise of gamified recruitment for violent crime among youth represents a significant shift in how organized crime syndicates operate globally.
Image source, Swedish Police Image caption, Atilla Azimov posing with a gun three months before he killed Murad Abdelkader
In a Stockholm suburb a man dressed in black appeared out of the winter night. Carrying a handgun, he approached 20-year-old Murad Abdelkader, a student on his way back from a shift at McDonald's.
The gunman opened fire, shooting again and again as he approached his target. He fired the last shot into his victim's head as he lay helpless on the ground.
The killer was 18-year-old Atilla Azimov. On that February night last year, he had killed the wrong man.
He had done it for money - hired by the Foxtrot Network, an organised crime group with links to the Iranian regime which has become notorious for its violence-as-a-service (VaaS) tactics.
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