Europol: ‘Criminals who recruit young people online for serious violence threaten the safety of European citizens’

Europol sees the recruitment of young people via social media for performing serious violence as a new and serious threat.

This is evident from the four -year threat image about organized crime that the European police service will present on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Andy Collar, head of it since October 2024 European Serious and Organized Crime Center from Europol, this form of ‘services’ in the underworld as Violence as a Service.

“Due to the way in which clients recruit the performers of very serious crimes such as extortion, kidnapping and murder, they often stay out of shot,” said Kraag. “The young people who do the dirty work for criminal leaders do run great risks,” he says. Usually these boys do not know their clients and do not realize the consequences of their crimes, says Kraag: “They also rarely get the money that has been promised to them.”

Teens as a disposable article

The youngsters, sometimes only fourteen or fifteen years old, must be seen as the perpetrator and victim, and are very often caught. “After they have carried out their assignment, they have no idea what to do.”

And clients are mercilessly opposed to performers if they have not accomplished their duties properly. “They regard these children as disposable items. And they run great risks of blackmail or violent repercussions, “says Kraag.

According to the collar, the social consequences cannot be underestimated. “Not only the performers themselves, but also their family members, neighbors and friends can be the target of repercussions. That is one of the reasons why we see this new practice as an important threat of organized crime for European citizens. “

Hostage for stolen weed

Five hostage men, their arms and legs with tiewraps tied to the chair on which they are, are relieved when the German police enter a remote shed just outside of Cologne on Tuesday evening 25 June 2024. Dr. of them were held for four hours and mistreated by three attackers.

With constant threat, their nose and mouth were covered with plastic foil so that they could not breathe: “You are not going to survive this,” the men were told. They were seriously injured with a steel cable, with which they were beaten on their heads and body.

One of the victims was strangled several times, he says the German police: “I thought I would choke.” Then he was so hard in his stomach that he fainted.

And if problems arise in drug trafficking, extreme violence seems to be the only means of communication

When the police invades, this man no longer has socks on: the tortuers have threatened with nails pulling off and cutting toes.

To reinforce that threat, he was cut into an arm with a machete, a hood knife with a blade of almost forty centimeters that the police found in the shed.

“Where is my money?”, One of the attackers in English continued to ask. He received telephone instructions from a suspected client, according to an indictment of the German justice NRC has been seen. “Where is my money? Where are those 3 million? ”

That amount refers to a batch of weed that was stolen from the same shed a few days earlier. The three abused men had to guard the drugs. One of them must have betrayed things, conclude the owners of that weed.

To find out who that traitor is, three Dutch men are hired. These are born Amsterdammers aged 29, 23 and 20, the two youngest were previously convicted in the Netherlands for serious abuse and forbidden possession of weapons.

Kidnaps around Cologne

According to the German indictment, the three have nothing to do with the stored drugs. Just before the abuse via social media, they were recruited for ‘work’ and a few hours before the hostage -taking from Amsterdam to Germany drove in a black Volkswagen Golf, which is later found at the shed.

The theft of the weed and the kidnapping mark the start of a very violent period in and around Cologne with attacks and even more abductions. That violence led to great unrest among the population.

According to Europol collar, it is a typical example of crime as a service. “It almost always starts with drug trafficking. And if problems arise in that environment, extreme violence seems to be the only means of communication, “says Andy Kraag.

It is a trend that, according to collar in Sweden, it has begun and spreads through Europe like an oil slick. The violence often stems from poverty, unemployment and drug trafficking in segregated disadvantaged areas of Swedish cities where many people with a migration delay live.

‘Gamification of violence’

Criminal investigations show that the implementers of attacks with fireworks bombs in the Netherlands and cocaine elderly in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam are often recruited in the same way. That process often starts via social media such as Snapchat, Telegram or Discord, a ChatApp.

This by perpetrators are shown films of the threats they perform, with fireworks or weapons. They make those videos themselves with a telephone or a camera on the body.

Collar: “These young people make those videos as proof for their clients. We call this the gamification of serious violence. A certain group of young people unfortunately think this is great. ”

And that is the risk. “These videos also aim to recruit new performers,” explains collar. “They are often presented in the style of the videos of online influencers that match the experience of young people. You can see that, for example, in the language and emojis. With young people who are interested in an assignment, one is then communicated via Direct Messaging. ”

Then a process that describes collar starts as groomingsimilar to victims of forced prostitution. “It is subtly, in the first instance, it is very friendly and young people get money and goods promised. Once they have promised and realize what is really expected of them, they cannot go back. The recruiters are merciless. ”

Killers

Enough examples of this recruitment, says collar. In January of this year, for example, a fifteen-year-old boy from Hoorn in North Holland was arrested in the German city of Hamburg.

After the boy an alleged Chechen Mafia boss Had tried to shoot down, he was shot and mistreated by henchmen from the man himself. Later the boy was arrested.

In the southern French city Marseille Was a fifteen-year-old boy from prison last October by a 33-year-old drug criminal to place an explosive at the home of a rival. When the boy was caught by henchmen of the rival, he was set down and set on fire alive.

To reject the death of this boy, the detained drug boss hired someone again. This time a fourteen -year -old teenager who was commissioned to kill the rival.

He let himself be taken by taxi service to the place where the target was. Because the 36-year-old taxi driver did not want to wait, the boy shot him. When he asked his client for help, he tipped the police who arrested the boy.

Not only the performers themselves, but also their family members, neighbors and friends can be the target of repercussions

“Every father or mother who hears or reads these kinds of stories simply cannot imagine that a teenager can do things like this,” said Kraag. “And yet in many major European cities it is reality. That is why we have described this practice as a ‘crucial threat’ in the four -year threat image about organized crime. ” According to collar, this European problem requires a European system approach. “With various affected European countries, the first agreements have been made about this.”

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