The officers who arrested him say he was a cold-tempered child. Since they started monitoring his footsteps and his daily life, they have only seen him go to school once. A boy from the San Juan neighborhood, in Alicante, with a family settled in a comfortable and discreet urbanization.
Even if it seemed incredible to them, the young man had realized for some time a network of hitmen to carry out murders throughout Europe. A group of minor hitmen.
Agents from UDYCO Central and UDYCO Costa del Sol of the National Police are used to investigating acts of violence committed by Swedes, Dutch, French, but all committed by adult criminals. “Never minors. When we received the opinion from Sweden, we thought it was a joke,” one of the researchers told EL ESPAÑOL.
Operation Carousel
The advice was true. A 14-year-old boy, first in ESO, ran a hitman collection office for a large international organization. At your expense, a dozen young armed men from northern Europe.
He captured potential murderers via a Telegram channel. None of them reached the age of 18. Payments ranged from 20,000 and 50,000 euros by objective, based on the value of life to be harvested.
With a warning from Swedish authorities, the investigation into the Operation Carousel. There would be a settling of scores on the Costa del Sol, a crime between gangs during which a biker would be murdered. A 17 year old Swedish boy He went to Spain to commit the ordered crime. He was one of the shooters paid by the young performer.
The central services of the Drugs and Organized Crime Unit (UDYCO) and its section on the Costa del Sol have already found him on national territory. Then they discreetly followed the trail to Torremolinos and Benalmádena (Málaga), where he was to commit the crime.
They tracked him for five days and monitored his every move. The young man kept a low profile, barely leaving the hotel, until the day he decided to take an electric scooter ride to the neighborhood where he was to commit the murder.
He did it two days in a row. During follow-ups, the agents verified that he was looking for possible access routes to homes, entrances and exits, dirt roads to escape… In short, the young man was preparing the ground to kill a target and run away. at full speed.
The arrest took place last May. Investigators decided to arrest him before he could act. At the hotel, they found gloves, duct tape and a zipper. “At that time, he didn’t have a weapon because he was waiting for one to be provided to him. They always succeed in the end, to avoid unnecessary risks.” Following this arrest, the investigation led them to the mastermind of the crime. A 14 year old boy who lived in Alicante with his family.
It was about a young man of Swedish nationality but born in Serbia. He lived with his father, a violent criminal with a history of drug dealing. The mother had no crimes on her record, but she was fully aware of the work her son did.
“The organization had been established in Spain for some time, when we arrested the 17-year-old hitman in May, they were already established here,” investigators explain. When they arrived in front of the child, they couldn’t believe it. This is something their Swedish counterparts have told them and has been happening for years there, where there is a serious organized crime problem. But they would never imagine finding this type of criminal organizations in Spain.
One of the people arrested during the operation.
The parents of the head of the hitmen did not work. They only lived in the world of crime. The biggest one was when they started discovering that everyone in their care was also underage. Two of his hitmen were arrested with the young man in Alicante. During a search, a pistol was seized.
Investigators say the young man had some ability to recruit other teenagers to carry out these shady deals. For that used Telegram channels in which he launched his offers and objectives to other compatriots. I was trying to get profiles of young people like him. Boys who had already been in contact with the world of crime. With little opportunity to prosper and a great desire for easy money.
The father, who played “a fundamental role”, then helped him with the payments. It was in his house that all the activity of the organization was centralized and it was constituted as operations center. This is where the social media accounts used to recruit young people and give orders to commit the crimes were managed.
Once the investigation was completed, they arrested him. They discovered that the 14-year-old boy had planned to send an assault rifle to the young hitman arrested before him, so that he could commit the crime in Benalmádena. They also knew he had arrived in Spain to kill a member of a rival motorcycle gang.
At the same time, the national police arrested two other minors in Denmark as part of the same operation, also of Swedish nationality. They intended to commit another murder. They had two firearms with them.
The operation was carried out in collaboration with the Swedish and Danish police, under the coordination of Europol and Eurojust. Fortunately, the investigation confirmed, This clan has not managed to end anyone’s life in Spain. They have achieved certain goals in other countries in the north of the continent.
Europol alert
Just over a month ago, Europol released an intelligence memo warning that international organized crime in Europe was trying to recruit minors to continue committing all kinds of crimes. The European Police Agency reveals that what was detected in Spain is not an isolated case.
“The major groups of the continent They are starting to integrate minors into their organizations, between 13 and 17 years old, assigning them different roles: street dealers, couriers, warehouse operators, drug extractors from maritime transport, fraudsters and even, as seen in this operation, committing murder,” warned Europol .
The use of minors for fraudulent purposes was previously rare or non-existent, but now represents almost 10% of cases in some countries. These young criminals move from one region to another, from one city to another, which limits the ability of local authorities to react and reduces the probability of arrest.
Online platforms have become essential for recruiting minors. On social media, drug traffickers have managed to create content that idealizes those who engage in organized crime, exalting these illicit activities.
As EL ESPAÑOL has already revealed, this practice is also intensifying among jihadist organizations present in Spain. Fuents of the fight against terrorism observes “a notable increase” attempts to recruit adolescents and children by organizations such as Daesh (Islamic State) or Al-Qaeda. They already constitute an obvious target of jihad, with the number of radicalized young people continuing to increase.
