The seizure of two phones in a Swedish town led to the uncovering of a global criminal network that includes two notorious Kurdish gangsters, police have revealed, after making arrests following a two-year inquiry.
When investigators began analysing the phones, found on a drug dealer in the west of Sweden, they unearthed a treasure trove of messages and contacts across the world.
The devices were seized in November 2023 and prompted an investigation named Operation Candy, led by Swedish police working with forces in Spain, Australia and Thailand, and co-ordinated by Europol, the EU’s crime fighting agency.
When investigators cracked the encrypted communications, what emerged was not a single organised crime group, but a number of criminal networks dealing in synthetic drugs and large-scale money laundering.
They were interconnected through a sophisticated web of corporate entities used to obscure ownership, logistics and financial flows.
This week, 13 Swedish citizens were arrested: six in Sweden, four in Spain and three in Thailand. A previous operation by Australian police led to two arrests.
Sweden has been blighted by gang warfare, sparked by the rise of Rawa Majid and his Foxtrot criminal network.
His feud with rival gangster Ismail Abdo, who runs the Rumba network, has led to a series of murders, which has led to Sweden having one of the highest homicide rates in Europe.
Mats Berggren, acting deputy head of operations in Sweden's national police force, was asked by The National whether the owner of the phones was connected to either criminal network.
He said the confiscation of the phones was “not specifically linked” to Foxtrot or Rumba but added: “We can see traces of those networks and a lot of other networks in the investigation as well.”
Majid is believed to be hiding in Iran, his country of birth, in an attempt to evade the Swedish authorities. Known as the Kurdish Fox, he has been placed under sanctions by the US and the UK, which have accused him of working for Iran to attack Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe.
He is the subject of an Interpol red notice, which states he is wanted on murder and attempted murder charges, as well as drugs offences, going back to 2020.
Swedish-born Abdo was arrested in Turkey last July, along with two of his associates. He is wanted, accused of a series of drug offences and ordering attacks on his rival.
As well as the arrests, criminal assets worth €4 million ($4.6 million) have been seized and Europol said it expects that figure to rise.
It said data recovered from the devices exposed how the networks operated across numerous crime areas and jurisdictions.
Swedish investigators found criminals were running a large-scale online drug distribution business supplying customers in the Nordic region.
The drugs were being handled by a domestic distribution network, which laundered the profits.
In Germany, 1.2 tonnes of illicit drugs destined for the Australian market, a shipment organised through the same criminal set up, were intercepted.
Meanwhile in Spain, a high-value target was facilitating large-scale drug trafficking.
The decentralised but connected system trafficked various drugs, moving profits across borders and used layered business structures to hide those directing operations, and conceal profits.
Andy Kraag, who heads Europol’s European Serious and Organised Crime Centre, said Operation Candy “shows what organised crime looks like today”.
“It started with something small – two mobile phones seized from a trafficker in a small Swedish town. But what investigators found inside was not a local story.
"It was a global criminal enterprise moving tonnes of drugs across continents, hiding profits behind layers of companies and co-ordinating through encrypted communications and online marketplaces.”
