An alleged leading member of Sweden’s Foxtrot criminal network has been arrested in Morocco on suspicion of attempted murder and instigating a grenade attack.
Ali Namdar, 21, was detained in Tangier at the request of Swedish authorities after being placed on a list of Europe’s most-wanted suspects.
Mr Namdar has been linked to Foxtrot and is thought to be one of the network's more violent members, according to SVT, Sweden’s national broadcaster.
He was detained after reportedly being found with false identity documents and is now in custody in the North African country.
Mr Namdar, who goes by the alias Joker, is wanted in connection with 18 offences including allegedly instigating an attempt by a 12-year-old girl to detonate two live hand grenades in the Hulta district of Boras in Sweden last year.
Swedish police say he is suspected of several violent crimes, including attempted murder. He is also wanted in Norway on suspicion of carrying out grenade attacks, shootings and abductions.
"It is a strategically important arrest of an individual who has long had a major influence on violence in Sweden," said Police Superintendent Theodor Smedius.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said that "a 21-year-old man being held in absentia at several Swedish district courts on suspicion of instigating serious violent crime in Sweden".
National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh thanked Morocco's Director General of Police and Security Services, Abdellatif Hammouchi, and officers for their “very professional and efficient work”.
A request for extradition "will be sent to Morocco and then we await the Moroccan processing. Based on experience, it can take a few months," said Swedish prosecutor Helene Gestrin.
The Foxtrot network, along with its founder, Kurdish-born gangster Rawa Majid, has been placed under sanctions by the US and the UK for carrying out attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets on behalf of Iran, using teenagers recruited via social media apps.
Foxtrot has unleashed a wave of gang violence in recent years, leading to Sweden’s murder rate becoming one of the highest in Europe.
Majid is believed to be enjoying the protection of Iran, where he was born, after his family escaped from the Iraqi Kurdistan region following Saddam Hussein’s war with the Kurds.
Mr Namdar’s arrest is the latest of a wanted fugitive linked to Foxtrot secured by Swedish authorities.
Mohamed Mohdhi, believed to be the network’s second-in-command, was arrested in Tunisia on suspicion of murder in May.
In January, Ali Shehab, 21, was accused of recruiting children to kill rival criminals and was detained in the city of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan.
He was allegedly involved in organising an assassination that Norwegian Johannes Natland was convicted of plotting to carry out.
Natland, 19, was prevented from carrying out an attack after he was arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield.
The process of organising the attack had begun when an individual referred to as Agent 47 had used social media to contact a figure with the username Generalen to ask for someone to carry out an assassination in the UK. Swedish police believe Agent 47 was Mr Shehab.
