In brief
A network dubbed Foxtrot is drawing teenagers across Europe to carry out assassinations for cash. The group, backed by the Iranian regime, recruits pre‑adolescents via social media and treats them like characters in video games, offering instructions and logistics. The scheme has led to at least 35 murders and several attacks on Israeli targets. Europol‑run task forces have made over 280 arrests, yet the network’s leadership remains abroad. The threat of outsourced murder continues to grow as rival groups adopt the same model.
The murder of Murad Abdelkader in Stockholm turned a sinister chapter of a youth‑hired assassin into a public spectacle. The killer, Atilla Azimov, was 18 when he fired repeated shots that ended 20‑year‑old Abdulkader’s life. A year later, Azimov received a life sentence for a misdirected act that followed orders from the Foxtrot Network.
Established in 2022, the Foxtrot Network has claimed responsibility for roughly 35 killings and a series of targeted attacks on Israeli sites in Europe, including two explosive incidents. The organisation tips its teenage recruits in “gamified” messages on platforms like Signal, assigning them missions as if they were video‑game characters. Senior Europol officer Andy Kraag has described this as the “calculated outsourcing of murder” to vulnerable juveniles.
One high‑profile recruit, Norwegian teenager Johannes Natland, was caught before the final hit. While he had been paid non‑cash $21,000 (about 270,000 NOK) to carry out a murder in Huddersfield, he never received the target details before police apprehended him in the UK. Investigation revealed a chain of online handles—Generalen, Agent 47, and a logistics handler known as “1”—that directed Natland through travel, weapon procurement and the final operation. The fake‑game framework, including maps and instructions, exemplified the network’s systematic approach to juvenile perpetrators.
The network’s links to the Iranian regime stretch back to October 2023, when its leader, Rawa Majid, fled to Tehran. Iranian officials allegedly used the foxtrot network to carry out attacks against the regime’s adversaries, including an Israeli embassy grenade assault in Copenhagen.
Plagued by the fact that many recruits never receive payment, the Foxtrot Network’s strategy is to use children whose lack of life experience makes them amenable to extreme orders. This model has been replicated by rivals, for example, the Dalen Network, raising the spectre of widespread VaaS activity across Europe.
Over 280 arrests have followed since the inception of the Europol’s Operation GrIMM, but the network’s core remains elusive, with the leader Nichid still out in Iran. As global law‑enforcement accelerates collaboration, investigators warn that the arms‑trading and violent threat posed by these networks will persist, especially as the methods become more technologically sophisticated.
