11-year-old "waiting for the first body": the criminals in Sweden recruit children as hired killers

 11-year-old "waiting for the first body": the criminals in Sweden recruit children as hired killers

Sweden fails to deal with the criminal organizations that terrorize the country, and recruit through social networks children under the age of 15 - the age of criminal responsibility - to carry out assassinations in the name of the gangs: "Today everyone wants to be a murderer"

AFP|

"Dude, I can't wait for my first body," writes an 11-year-old boy in Sweden, in a message on Instagram to a man who recruited him to serve as a hit man. "Stay motivated, and it will come," the 19-year-old recruiter replied. He offered the boy 150,000 kroner ($13,680) to commit the murder and promised to buy him clothes and drive him to the arena. This is not an isolated case: in Sweden, the age of criminal responsibility is 15, and the criminal organizations recruit younger children to carry out the assassinations on their behalf.

The exchange on Instagram between the 11-year-old boy and the young man who recruited him was revealed in an investigation in the province of Varmland in the west of the country. All those involved in the case - four men aged 18 to 20 who were accused of recruiting four minors, and four aged 11 to 17, were arrested before they could carry out the assassinations.

The police investigation in Wormland included screenshots that the minors sent to each other. In the photos they pose with weapons, some masked and shirtless. During the police investigation, the 11-year-old boy was asked about the message he wrote, saying that he wanted to look "cool" and "not to show that he was afraid."

Sweden is having trouble curbing the increase in shootings, explosions and gang wars throughout the country in recent years. Last year, 53 people were shot dead, including innocent civilians. The fight against organized crime in Sweden is complex, also in light of the fact that gang leaders lead them outside the country and are helped by intermediaries who use applications with encrypted messages such as Telegram and Snapchat to recruit children under the age of criminal responsibility.

"It's organized like a kind of market, where the jobs are posted on forums, and the people who get them are younger and younger," says Johan Olsen, head of the national operations department at the police. The hired killers are not directly related to the criminal organizations, and communication with them is done via the Internet and by "intermediaries" who recruit them. Other mediators come to distressed neighborhoods and appeal to children on the street.

The number of murder cases in Sweden in which there are suspects under the age of 15 rose from 31 last year to 102 this year. Sven Granth, a professor of criminology at Stockholm University, told the AFP news agency that the children who are recruited usually have difficulties in school, have a tendency to addictions or attention disorders, or those who have previously been in trouble with law enforcement.

"They are being recruited into conflicts they have nothing to do with, they are just mercenaries," said Granath, adding that they were not necessarily members of any gang before being recruited. Some children also turn to recruiters on their own initiative, in search of money, recognition or a sense of belonging. In some cases, children who cooperate with the gangs themselves recruit other children.

Toni Kiruga, a commander at Arbro police west of Stockholm, says that "there is brutal exploitation of young people". According to him, the recruiters who are looking for the children "do not want to take any risk themselves" and want to protect themselves and those above them in the hierarchy. He noted that those recruiters make sure to keep a separation between themselves and the children, and "hide behind nicknames on social networks".

Kiruga says in despair that the police are dealing with conflicts "that will never end". In an attempt to reduce the phenomenon, social workers are sent to distressed neighborhoods in Arbro to talk to the children about the danger of joining criminal organizations.

"Nowadays everyone wants to be a killer," said Victor Garba, 25, who left the world of crime three years ago. Garba, who was first arrested at the age of 13, says that Tiktok has "criminal influencers" who document their lifestyle - which is magical for children. "It's very sad that this is what the children aspire to," he says.

https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/hjobi1ux1x

For donations click:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

BEIT YISRAEL INTERNATIONAL. BECOME A MEMBER.

Arutz7 In the middle of the war | Homes of reservists in northern Israel slated for demolition

Beit Yisrael International. Become a member.