One of Attunda District Court’s security guards, a 29-year-old man from Azerbaijan, is charged with drug offenses and aggravated weapons offenses. In addition to the security guard, nineteen other people are charged in an extensive network where a criminal gang recruited children under the age of fifteen to become hitmen.
It is a night in December last year when the police stop a taxi in Upplands Väsby outside Stockholm. In the back seat of the taxi sits a Swedish, blond, blue-eyed 14-year-old boy. He has a pistol in his waistband.
The police assess that the 14-year-old boy, who is on the run from a residential care home, has been recruited as a so-called “stepper”. This means that a criminal gang has promised him money if he shoots and kills criminal competitors they want to get rid of.
Murder Plot
When the 14-year-old is stopped by the police, several arrests have already been made in the days before. And in the coming weeks and months, further arrests are made. The arrested individuals are connected to the collapsing so-called Foxtrot network.
New criminal groups have emerged from the remnants of the former criminal empire during the autumn of 2023. The networks Zorba and Zero, and not least La Liga – under the leadership of Mustafa “Benzema” Aljiburi. This is the network that the 14-year-old is suspected to have been recruited into.
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In March this year, a total of twenty persons of legal age have been arrested in the police’s efforts to unravel the La Liga network. It is a diverse group of individuals. In addition to Sweden, the gang members come from, among other places, Somalia, Congo, Syria, Iraq, and Poland. Some of them are not Swedish citizens.
The arrested individuals have been involved in drug trafficking, but perhaps most notably in attempting to recruit underage hitmen to target criminal competitors.
Security Guard
Since the beginning of September, a trial has been ongoing against the twenty individuals. It is held at Attunda District Court located in Sollentuna outside Stockholm. The main hearing concludes next week.
A special circumstance of the trial is that one of the accused, a 29-year-old man from Azerbaijan who is now a Swedish citizen, previously worked as a security guard at the same district court where he is now standing trial. He is also said to have worked as a security guard at other district courts.
The 29-year-old, who is previously without a criminal record and denies the charges, is charged with aggravated weapons offenses and drug offenses. The other defendants are charged with, among other things, conspiracy and preparation for murder, as well as involving a minor in criminal activity. Five of the accused are women.