Gang members in Sweden have been arrested for allegedly enlisting the help of children to commit crimes, paying them thousands of dollars to murder people on behalf of the gang due to Swedish law protecting children against prosecution.
Four men between the ages of 18 and 20 were arrested for allegedly recruiting four minors between the ages of 11 and 17 to carry out contracted murders. At least one of the minors was offered money for the deed, in addition to getaway supplies such as a change of clothes and transportation to and from the crime scene, reported France 24.
The children and their handlers were arrested before any crimes were carried out. A probe of their social media profiles led authorities to condemning messages exchanged about the task they were attempting to complete.
"Bro, I can't wait for my first dead body," wrote an 11-year-old boy in an Instagram message reviewed by France 24. "Stay motivated, it'll come," answered his 19-year-old contact.
"It is organized as a kind of [job] market where missions are published on discussion forums, and the people accepting the assignments are increasingly young," Johan Olsson, the head of the Swedish police's National Operations Department, told reporters.
Recently, 14-year-old Fernando Soucre was uncovered by authorities as an alleged hired mercenary for Sweden's Foxtrot gang. He was reportedly given two pistols and a Kalashnikov rifle in order to complete his assignment, as reported by The Telegraph.
After communicating with his contact on social media, Fernando allegedly approached the apartment of his target with another person, and fired about 15 shots through the front door using the Kalashnikov. He filmed the entire affair.
"The group chats have adventurous and exciting names, like 'bombing today' and 'who wants to shoot someone in Stockholm,'" Lisa dos Santos, a Swedish prosecutor, told The Telegraph . "It's not like before, when they used encrypted phones on a closed network. Now you can take a gang job on Snapchat."
"Some people say, 'they don't understand what they have done'. They may not fully understand the consequences of what they have done, but if you are 14 years old and you shoot a person in the head – you will understand that this man is dead," Carin Götblad, a police chief in Stockholm at the National Operations Department, told The Telegraph.
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