Killers dubbed ‘baby hitmen’ are being recruited by Swedish mafia bosses, police have said, and are ordered to kill in Spanish holiday hotspots popular with Brits
Swedish mafia bosses are said to be hiring teenagers as disposable contract killers to carry out hits on targets in a holiday hotspot swarming with Brits.
The killers, named “baby hitmen”, are reportedly being recruited from across Costa Del Sol, the Spanish region home to Marbella, Malaga, Fuengirola, and sunkissed Puerto Banus. The bosses are said to be targeting adolescents, local addicts, and generally vulnerable people they can pluck from the streets and use to obediently carry out their wills for modest payment.
They carry out kills for just “€4,000 (£3,523) or €5,000 (£4,404)”, police have said, after shipping over the killers – some of whom are barely old enough to drive – from Nordic nations.
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The Olive Press reports that Spanish police are saying the contract killers are asked to complete tasks for the gangs – including murders – after becoming indebted to them. They are then shipped to Costa del Sol and other locations in Europe in order to pay back their debts.
They reportedly carry out their illicit activities after being transported from Sweden or the Netherlands, and some have been captured after making the journey. Police have arrested three people on the Costa del Sol for ellicit activities, twho of whom had intended to carry out killings, and a third who carried out a murder after receiving an order from Belgium.
Investigators are now seeking to move up the mafia chain, but bosses have stayed put in northern Europe. A police spokesperson told Olive Press: “The organisations actually reside in other countries. The bosses are in Sweden and they send hitmen to kill. The problems there are affecting us here.”
Udyco, the Unidad de Delincuencia contra el Crimen Organizado, is working with other European organisation to trace the sources of the “child soldiers'” orders, with investigators also working in Sweden and Denmark to crack down on the gangs. Denmark’s National Special Crime Unit (National enhed for Særlig Kriminalitet) and Swedish Police (Polisen) have joined the Operational Taskforce (OTF) GRIMM, overseen by Europol, which has so far seen “several” individuals arrested on suspicion of recruiting others for contract kills.
In summer this year, Europol announced the arrests of seven people aged 14 and 26 in connection with attempted murders ordered via encrypted platforms. Two of those – both 18-year-old men – were apprehended in Sweden on suspicion of actively recruiting young people to commit targeted killings in Denmark and Sweden.
Europol said the cases were part of a “growing trend” across Europe, one it has named “violence-as-a-service”. Andy Kraag, head of Europol’s European Serious Organised Crime Centre, branded the issue “calculated outsourcing of murder”.
He said following the arrests: “Teenagers being paid to pull the trigger — this is what organised crime looks like in 2025. We are not dealing with petty street crime. This is calculated outsourcing of murder by criminal networks that treat human lives as disposable assets.
“Through Europol’s OTF GRIMM, law enforcement is tracking down the masterminds and dismantling the infrastructure they hide behind. There is no safe haven — online or offline — for those who trade in violence.”