Israeli intelligence reveals Iran's use of criminal gangs to target Israelis and Jews in Europe

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The Iranian regime has employed local criminal gangs to perpetrate terror attacks against Jews and Israelis in various European countries, according to Israel's Mossad intelligence unit, Shin Bet security agency and Israel Defense Forces.

Israeli intelligence specifically discovered that two European-based criminal networks – RUMBA and FOXTROT – were directly involved in the recent attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe.

The criminal networks are reportedly behind the attack on the Israeli embassy in the Swedish capital of Stockholm in January. In addition, Israeli intelligence assessed that the same criminal networks were behind the grenade attack at the Israeli embassy in Belgium earlier this month.

Sweden has emerged as a central location for the Iranian-led criminal network attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets.

“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 assessed. Several of the European networks are reportedly led by individuals of Middle Eastern descent.

FOXTROT, one of the better-known criminal organizations in Sweden, is led by Rawa Majid, an Iranian-born individual of Kurdish origin who uses the nickname “Kurdish Fox” due to his ability to escape justice.

Wanted by INTERPOL, Majid was allegedly "recruited by the Iranian terrorist organizations after he fled to Turkey on September 23 and managed to elude international law enforcement authorities, including a failed attempt to arrest him by the Iraqi security forces."

According to reports, the Iranian regime also cooperates with RUMBA, a rival criminal organization led by Ismail Abdo, a Swedish citizen of Kurdish origin.

The Swedish security service Säpo noted that Iran uses violence as a tool to silence critics of the regime across Europe.

“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.”

In February 2023, British Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat revealed that the Islamic Republic of Iran employed criminals to spy on prominent British Jews to identify potential targets.

“We know that the Iranians are using non-traditional sources to carry out these operations, including organized criminal gangs. They are paying criminal gangs to conduct surveillance. Basically, the Iranians are using crooks based in Britain to spy for them,” Tugendhat stated.

The British minister stressed that the Iranian-led terror activities in the UK pose a real threat to Jews and Israelis.

“You can be very clear that I wouldn’t have mentioned Jewish and Israeli targets unless I had good reason to do so,” he said.

“I take all threats against anyone in the U.K. very seriously and the reason I highlighted Israelis, and the Jewish community is that we have been seeing threat and Iranian operational activity directed against them I do not issue these warnings lightly,” he emphasized.