Kurdish ‘Foxtrot’ crime boss sanctioned by US over attacks linked to Iran

A notorious Swedish gangster accused of working for Iran by carrying out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets, and targeting opponents of Tehran's regime, has been placed under sanctions by the US.

Rawa Majid, 39, known as the Kurdish Fox, orchestrated an attack on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, in January 2024, on behalf of Iran, using his "Foxtrot Network" of criminals, the US Treasury said.

The Foxtrot Network has also been placed under sanction and is described by the US as “one of the most notorious criminal gangs based in Sweden, and has conducted shootings, contract killings, assaults and other forms of violence”.

Also used by Iran to target its opponents is Majid’s former criminal associate, Ismail Abdo, who leads the Rumba organisation. The rival gangs are wanted by authorities in Sweden on suspicion of ordering killings in a brutal turf war over the country's illegal drugs market.

Foxtrot is “one of the most prominent drug-trafficking organisations in the region with a presence in other European countries”, say the Americans.

“Iran’s brazen use of transnational criminal organisations and narcotics traffickers underscores the regime’s attempts to achieve its aims through any means, with no regard for the cost to communities across Europe,” said Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury.

“Treasury, alongside our US government and international partners, will continue to hold accountable those who seek to further Iran’s thuggish and destabilising agenda.”

Majid was reportedly arrested in Iran in October 2023 but remains at large and is described as a “fugitive” by the US Treasury.

According to the US, Tehran is “increasingly” using criminal networks as proxies to pursue its aims, as part of efforts to maintain plausible deniability for operations against its enemies.

The recruitment of criminal gangs by Iran was revealed by Sweden’s Sapo counter-intelligence service last May. At the same time, Israel’s Mossad agency named Majid and Abdo, along with their criminal networks, as the groups used by Tehran.

Iran has sought to assassinate dissidents through other criminal networks, including that of Iranian drug trafficker Naji Ibrahim Sharifi-Zindashti, who had sanctions imposed on him by the US last January.

Majid was born in Iran but could also be an Iraqi citizen, the US Treasury says. His family settled in the city Uppsala in Sweden, where he became involved in crime.

He is widely acknowledged as playing a major part in the escalation of gang violence Sweden, which has shattered its reputation as a peaceful country. The violence has seen a spate of bomb attacks, with criminals’ families targeted.

Children are recruited by criminal groups to carry out attacks on rivals as under Swedish law no one can be convicted until they are 15, with lighter sentences likely for under-18s.

Majid was convicted when he was 19 of burglary and cigarette smuggling, before he moved on to drug dealing. Despite being sentenced to eight years in jail after drugs were found in his garage by police, he still managed to build an extensive criminal network and has been a key player in the escalating gang violence in Sweden.

He left the country in 2018 for Turkey, where he was able to obtain citizenship as a result of investment in the country. Swedish authorities have called for him to be extradited.

Majid has been accused of directing the killing of a gang rival in Sweden in 2023 and was later arrested by Iranian police near the Turkish border.

As part of their feud, one of Abdo’s gang allegedly killed a member of Majid’s organisation last March in revenge for an attack carried out in a cafe in Istanbul.

The violence recently took a turn when gang members' families and loved ones also become targets. Abdo’s mother was shot dead in Uppsala in 2023, a killing Majid is suspected of ordering in retaliation for one of his own gang being attacked. Majid’s mother-in-law survived an attempt to kill her.