As part of 'renewed maximum pressure campaign' on Iran, US sanctions Swedish criminal gang with links to Iranian regime

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the United States has decided to impose sanctions on Foxtrot, a Sweden-based transnational criminal organization with ties to the Iranian regime. Foxtrot was behind last year’s attempted attack on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.

"The Iranian regime leveraged the Foxtrot Network to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe, including the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, in January 2024," the U.S. State Department reported. 

The sanctions against the Foxtrot Network are part of the Trump administration’s "renewed maximum pressure campaign" against the Iranian regime. The State Department emphasized Washington’s "commitment to hold accountable those individuals and organizations who work in conjunction with the regime in Tehran to undermine our nation’s safety and security and our global partners."

Foxtrot is led by Rawa Majid, an Iranian-born Kurd with dual Swedish and Turkish citizenship. He is known as the “Kurdish Fox” because of his ability to evade justice. Majid is wanted by Swedish authorities and believed to be hiding somewhere in Turkey.

Foxtrot is still involved in various criminal activities, such as arms and drug trafficking, which has resulted in a rise of violence, shootings and assaults, especially in Sweden and other northern European countries. 

As far back as May 2024, Israeli intelligence warned that the Iranian regime was using Foxtrot and other criminal gangs to attack Israeli and Jewish targets across Europe. 

“Iran operates many criminal organizations in Sweden and Europe in general, while taking advantage of the relative advantage of each and sometimes the rivalry between them,” Israeli intelligence warned.

Last October, a European report confirmed that Iran is employing criminal gangs to attack Jews and Israelis in Europe. Iran allegedly considers attacks on Jews and Israelis abroad to be low-risk operations, particularly when carried out by criminal gangs.

However, Jews and Israelis are not the only targets. Last year, the Swedish security service Säpo reported that the Iranian regime also employs criminal gangs to attack Iranian dissidents in Sweden and in other European countries. 

“Iran has previously used violence in other countries in Europe with the aim of silencing critical voices and perceived threats to its own regime,” Säpo stated. “To carry out these security-threatening activities, the Iranian regime has on occasion made use of criminal networks."

Sweden used to be a country with very low crime rates, however, in recent years, it has emerged as an important hub for transnational crime networks like Foxtrot. This development is the result of large-scale immigration from the Middle East to Sweden and the comparatively easy access to illegal arms across Europe.

Last December, reports revealed that Iran frequently recruits minors to carry out terror attacks across Europe, likely exploiting the relatively lenient penalties for underage offenders in Sweden and other European countries.