Kurdish 'Foxtrot Network' crime boss sanctioned by the UK for attacks linked to Iran

British officials say the move is part of its wider response to Iranian hostilities across Europe

Rawa Majid and his Foxtrot Network are behind escalating gang warfare in Sweden. Swedish Police / Reuters

A Swedish gangster accused of working for Iran to attack Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe has been sanctioned by the UK.

Rawa Majid, 39, known as the Kurdish Fox, has been linked to an attack on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, in January 2024, on behalf of Iran, using his "Foxtrot Network" of criminals. The UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the sanctions imposed on Majid and the Foxtrot Network formed part of its “ongoing response to Iranian hostilities in Europe”.

“The UK has announced sanctions against the notorious criminal Foxtrot Network and its leadership,” he said. “The Iranian regime uses criminal gangs across the world to threaten people. The UK has targeted this criminal network and its leader, Rawa Majid, due to their involvement in violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime. The UK will not tolerate these threats.”

Police cordon off a street in Stockholm after an attack on the Israeli embassy. EPA

Mr Lammy did not specify if the Foxtrot Network was linked to any attacks on people in the UK. He said the move comes after it was announced Iran will be placed on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs). The move requires Iran to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK, subjecting Tehran to an elevated tier of scrutiny in light of what the government says is increasingly aggressive activity.

“To date, the UK has sanctioned more than 450 Iranian individuals and entities, in response to the regime’s human rights violations, nuclear weapons programme and malign influence internationally,” said Mr Lammy. “The UK government will continue to hold the Iranian regime and criminals acting on its behalf to account.”

Under the sanctions any British citizen or business is banned from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by Majid and the Foxtrot Network. They are also not allowed to hold directorships of UK companies and Majid is also banned from travelling to the UK.

The UK’s decision comes after sanctions imposed on Majid and the Foxtrot Network by the US, which described the organisation as “one of the most notorious criminal gangs based in Sweden, and has conducted shootings, contract killings, assaults and other forms of violence”.

Ismail Abdo has also been accused of working for Iran. Photo: Swedish Police

Foxtrot is “one of the most prominent drug-trafficking organisations in the region with a presence in other European countries”, said the US Treasury when it announced the sanctions. Majid is wanted in Sweden for drug offences and other offences, and a prosecutor recently told The National he has fled Turkey, thwarting efforts to have him extradited. He is also the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, which states he is also wanted on murder and attempted murder charges, as well as charges of drugs offences.

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.

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 the 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 of Uppsala in Sweden, where he became involved in crime.

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

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