‘Iran recruited teen Swedes to attack Israeli, Jewish targets’

The Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) accused Iran of using criminal gangs, over the last year at least, to target Israeli and Jewish targets in Sweden, many near the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, according to an investigative report published this week on CNN.

Swedish authorities say minors—some as young as 13—have been co-opted into targeting these sites, often through the use of encrypted messaging services and social media. In one incident, a 14-year-old boy carrying a 9mm semi-automatic pistol fired several shots near the Embassy at 2 a.m. before being detained, according to the report. Because of his age, he could not be prosecuted, although a 15-year-old accomplice who had planned to carry out a similar attack the night before was remanded to an 11-month stay in a juvenile care home.

Sweden has been battling a wave of gang violence, which increasingly involves children and teenagers, some of whom are too young to be either prosecuted or incarcerated. In 2024, SÄPO warned that Tehran was using the country’s criminal gang network to expand its conflict with Israel to Sweden’s streets, a claim Iran’s Embassy in Stockholm labeled a “fake and propagandistic claim” pushed by Israel.

Particular attention was paid to two rival gangs—Rumba and Foxtrot—which, according to a SÄPO source, “plotted several attacks targeting the Israeli embassy in Stockholm at Iran’s behest last year,” CNN reported. Fredrik Hallström, head of operations at SÄPO, said state actors were increasingly using organized crime to expose a vulnerability in Sweden.

In recent years, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have warned in general of an uptick in Iranian state threats in the West, targeting dissidents and journalists, as well as Israelis and Jews.

In January, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson accused Iran of using organized gangs to carry out attacks on Swedish soil, according to Iran International. “Sweden is not at war. But there is no peace either,” he said.

Israel’s Mossad intelligence service has linked the leaders of both groups, Foxtrot’s Rawa Majid and Rumba’s Ismail Abdo, who were formerly allies until a falling out led to them becoming rivals, to working with Iran, and blaming both groups for attacks on Israel’s embassy in Stockholm.

The problem is not limited to just Sweden, indeed, some of the other Nordic countries, particularly Norway and Denmark, have also accused Iran of backing criminal elements to carry out operations on their soil.

© JNS