Sweden's Brutal Gang Civil War: The Kurdish Fox vs Strawberry

Summary

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The Underworld Podcast

Episode: Sweden's Brutal Gang Civil War: The Kurdish Fox vs Strawberry

Date: December 23, 2025
Hosts: Danny Gold & Sean Williams

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Overview

This episode of The Underworld Podcast delves into the spectacular unraveling of Sweden’s most powerful crime syndicate, the Foxtrot network. Journalists Danny Gold and Sean Williams explore a gangland civil war between two former allies—Rawa Majid (“the Kurdish Fox”) and Ismail Abdo (“Strawberry”)—which plunged Sweden into unprecedented violence, rippled across Europe and the Middle East, and challenged Sweden’s whole approach to crime and social policy. The story encompasses ruthless ambition, child hitmen, wild betrayals, international manhunts, and even ties to state actors and terrorism.

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Key Points and Discussion

1. Opening: Black September and the Foxtrot Civil War

[01:01-04:36]

• In September 2023, a 58-year-old woman was assassinated in Uppsala. She turned out to be the mother of Ismail Abdo (“Strawberry”), right-hand man in Foxtrot.
• The murder was allegedly ordered by Rawa Majid (“the Kurdish Fox”), Foxtrot’s founder, after internal tensions and betrayals ripped the gang apart.
• The war quickly descended into unprecedented violence: relatives were targeted, child hitmen were dispatched, and within two weeks, 11 died in what Sweden called “Black September.”
• Host Danny Gold summarizes:

  "Relatives become fair game and there are no more rules. Days later, the Kurdish Fox’s mother-in-law is targeted, as is his father. Over the next two weeks, 11 people are killed..." [03:40]

2. Podcaster Banter & Sweden’s Unique Trajectory

[04:49-10:14]

• Danny Gold and Sean Williams joke about sports, Swedish culture (“IKEA bullshit”), and the dark irony of covering Scandinavian gang wars.
• They stress how Sweden is the only European country where fatal shootings have risen since 2000, despite falling rates elsewhere.
• Quote from Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson:

  "Sweden has never seen anything like this. No other country in Europe is seeing anything like this." [11:01]

• Sweden considered summoning its military against gangs—“Swedish laws aren't designed for gang wars and child soldiers.”

3. The Kurdish Fox: Origins of a Gangland King

[12:16-18:48]

• Rawa Majid’s Background: Born in Iran to Kurdish parents fleeing Saddam’s crackdown, his mother a Peshmerga fighter.
• Grew up poor in Uppsala—homeless at times, failed integration, but soon fell in with criminal cousins.
• Early crimes: theft, selling drugs, multiple prison stints.

  “He was one of a group of young people in Uppsala who took a wrong turn very early. You could talk to some of them... but there were others who you couldn’t even talk to. He was one of them.” — Rawa’s early lawyer [16:56]

• After prison, set up the Foxtrot network, leveraging new gangland dynamics—encrypted chat apps, teenage operatives, transnational reach.

4. Building the Foxtrot Network

[19:34-23:43]

• Foxtrot's rise was built on branding (diamond fox rings, fox-stamped drug shipments), alliances (with Bro and Zero Networks), and modern tech.
• Innovated with recruitment:

  “Foxtrot actually perfects the tactic that Death Patrol had pioneered, creating a pipeline of child soldiers who could carry out serious crimes with minimal legal consequences.” [20:32]

• The network had no single 'turf'—spread across Swedish cities, hiring younger and younger hitmen to avoid harsh sentencing.

5. Darkly Modern: Child Hitmen and Social Media Contracts

[29:38-33:19]

• Teenagers—and even pre-teens—find murder-for-hire gigs through Telegram, Snapchat, and Instagram.
• Price lists: €3,000 for a bombing, €50,000 for a murder.
• Chilling exchange from intercepted chats:

  “Bro, I can’t wait for my first dead body,” wrote an 11-year-old boy. “Stay motivated, it’ll come,” answered his 19-year-old ‘contact.’ [30:37]

• Swedish prosecutor Lisa Dos Santos:

  “Now you can take a gang job on Snapchat.” [30:15]

6. Operation and Expansion

[25:13-27:43]

• Foxtrot operated like a modern multinational: 150kg of drugs moved per week, family-based structure, heavy use of bitcoin and hawala for laundering.
• Sean Williams explains hawala, the trust-based, untraceable money transfer system—$250+ billion moves through it yearly.

7. International Intrigue: Hiding Abroad, Evading Justice

[34:55-36:09]

• The Kurdish Fox relocated to Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, then Turkey, purchasing a “golden passport” that made him legally immune from extradition.

  “Turkey does not extradite its citizens. So... he’s basically untouchable to the European police at this point.” — Danny Gold [35:04]

• Even when arrested in Turkey, he managed to bribe or talk his way out.

8. War on Multiple Fronts: Bandidos and Dalen Network

[37:04-43:52]

• Foxtrot’s disputes with the Bandidos motorcycle club escalate into tit-for-tat killings and bombings.
• At the same time, another war erupts with the Dalen Network, run by “the Greek” who flees to Mexico but is later extradited.
• Media report:

  “Foxtrot’s local cell relied on teenagers, some as young as 15, broken out of youth facilities and sent north as disposable hitmen...” [43:42]

• The Swedish police begin to intercept and prevent murders, but the war claims many lives on all sides.

9. Social Media Showdowns: Mustafa Benzema Al Jiburi

[45:51-46:48]

• Mustafa was Foxtrot’s third-in-command—he livestreamed from Baghdad, brandishing a gold-plated AK, announcing his new gang (“La Liga”), and mocking rivals.
• Fakes his own death to evade a hit, only to be killed months later by a Swedish teen hitman.

10. Strawberry and the Civil War

[48:58-56:18]

• Ismail “Strawberry” Abdo, Kurdish-Lebanese-Turkish background, laundered money through family strawberry stands.

  “There’s always money in the strawberry stand.” — Sean Williams, joking after a police raid [49:53]

• After his mother’s murder allegedly by the Fox, he splinters off to form the “Roomba Network,” igniting an all-out civil war.
• Both sides target rivals’ families, spread carnage to multiple countries, and hire children for murder.
• Both Strawberry and the Kurdish Fox won Turkish “golden citizenship” and ran their networks from abroad, making policework and extradition nearly impossible.

11. From Crime to Terrorism

[51:11-53:21]

• In exile, the Kurdish Fox is arrested in Iran and allegedly aids the regime in attacks on Jews, Israelis, and dissidents in Sweden, in exchange for protection.
• Both Strawberry and Majid are targeted by US and UK terrorism sanctions, not just criminal warrants.

  “He’s not being sanctioned for drug dealing. He’s being sanctioned for terrorist acts.” — Danny Gold [52:26]

12. Crackdown, Reforms, and the "Swedish Condition"

[56:18-59:24]

• Swedish authorities finally ramp up: new laws reduce age of criminal responsibility, allow for witness protection, increase deportations, and beef up police budgets.
• But youth involvement in violence is surging—258% increase in under-15s in murder cases in early 2024.
• Gangs adapt, shifting into welfare fraud, local politics, and even running schools and care homes.
• The violence now spills into Denmark and beyond:

  “Swedish youths are being anonymously hired through social media for acts of violence in Denmark as though they were Deliveroo drivers.” — Danish criminologist [56:28]

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “Some say it starts because the Kurdish Fox gets greedy and starts ripping off his lieutenants... Others say he's just been acting like a maniac, ordering hits left and right... and then comes the unthinkable—a hit on his former partner's mother.” — Danny Gold [02:15]
• “€3,000 to blow up a door in Malmö. €50,000 for a hit in Stockholm. €80,000 for a hit in Malmö at one point...” — Danny Gold [29:43]
• “Bro, I can’t wait for my first dead body.” — 11-year-old in intercepted chat [30:37]
• “Turkey does not extradite its citizens. So the Kurdish Fox, he's basically untouchable...” — Danny Gold [35:04]
• “Everyone puts in work.” — Danny Gold, on Foxtrot’s recruitment [21:13]
• “We have a system where criminals run schools and care homes. We've been too naive.” — Swedish official, via Financial Times [58:10]

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Memorable Moments

• The absurdity of social media “murder ads,” with job postings titled “Bombing today” and “Who wants to shoot someone in Stockholm” [30:12]
• Mustafa’s fake-death livestream in Baghdad, complete with balaclavas and an AK-47 [45:51]
• The strawberry stand money-laundering ring—an “Arrested Development” reference from Sean [49:53]
• The international scope: key leaders hiding in Turkey, Iraq, and Mexico; their operatives, teenage hitmen, sent across Europe and the Middle East.

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Timestamps of Major Segments

• 01:01 — Cold Open: Foxtrot’s civil war and Black September
• 10:14 — Sweden’s crime trajectory vs. rest of Europe
• 12:16 — Origins of Rawa Majid, the Kurdish Fox
• 20:32 — Foxtrot’s use of child soldiers
• 29:38 — Social media and teenage contract killers
• 34:55 — Kurdish Fox’s international hideouts and near-immunity
• 37:04 — Escalation with Bandidos, tit-for-tat murders
• 43:42 — Dalen Network feud; teenage hitmen in action
• 45:51 — The Live Broadcast from Baghdad: Mustafa’s fake hit
• 48:58 — Strawberry’s role, money laundering, and breaking away
• 51:11 — Gang wars become entangled with state-backed terrorism
• 56:18 — Swedish police reforms, societal impact, and evolving gang tactics
• 59:24 — The new face of organized crime: from contract murder to welfare fraud

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Tone & Style

The podcast combines hard-nosed reporting, in-depth storytelling, and gallows humor. Both hosts—especially Sean—frequently joke or make cultural asides, but always return to their core theme of exposing hidden criminal networks and broader societal impacts.

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Conclusion

Sweden’s “gangland civil war” between the Kurdish Fox and Strawberry not only shattered an empire but also shredded the distinction between local crime and transnational terrorism, pushing Swedish (and European) institutions to radically rethink both security and social policy. Although both leaders are now in exile or in custody, the weapons, tactics, and networked culture they introduced ensure that organized violence—and the recruitment of ever-younger soldiers—remains Sweden’s “new normal.”

Transcript

[Danny Gold]

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[Danny Gold]

September 2023 in Uppsala, Sweden 1am and a call goes out to the police. There's been a shooting and a body has been found. When the cops show up, they find a 58 year old woman has been shot and killed. A pistol with a silencer had been used and she's shot through an open window. It's clearly a hit. Within days, two people are arrested for the murder. A 20 year old and a 15 year old. A shocking crime. But what's even more shocking is who she is. The mother of Ismail Abdo, also known as Strawberry, second in command of the Foxtrot network. In recent years, they've become the most powerful gang in Sweden. International drug traffickers, known for dispensing teenage hitmen with just a text message. And even more shocking is who ordered the hit. Not the Bandidos or the Dalen Network or any other rival street gang in Sweden. No, the man who called in the hit allegedly is Strawberry's former close ally. The number one to his number two. Rawa Majid, AKA the Kurdish Fox. The man who built Foxtrot into a massive operation and that now dominates Sweden's underworld. That is, until now, when the civil war with his former right hand man threatens to tear it apart. And does. The Kurdish Fox had risen to the top of Sweden's gangland food chain with cunning, violence and operational logistics the likes of which Sweden had never seen before. Parlaying international drug connections into a gangland empire. And strangely, the Kurdish Fox hadn't even been based in Sweden since 2018. He ran his operations first from his parents hometown in northern Iraq and then in Turkey. Where his money buys him citizenship and protection from extradition to Sweden. And Turkey is where the Foxtrot network starts to split into two as Strawberry also flees Sweden to set up shop there. Some say it starts because the Kurdish Fox gets greedy and starts ripping off his lieutenants, but defrauding his own drug couriers and stealing drugs from his own network, including from Strawberry's people. Others say the Kurdish Fox had been acting like a maniac, ordering hits left and right. Just overkill and not divvying up the profits accurately. Soon enough, someone in Strawberry's crew in Istanbul is kidnapped and beat up. As retaliation, there's a shooting at an address linked to the Kurdish Fox. And then comes the unthinkable, a hit on his former partner's mother. The ultimate betrayal and war. Much like the shadows of a death patrol war that also started between friends that's going to rip Sweden apart and ripple across Europe and the Middle East. Relatives become fair game and there are no more rules. Days later, the Kurdish Fox's mother in law is targeted, as is his father. Over the next two weeks, 11 people are killed, several more injured in what becomes known as Black September in Sweden. And it's not just his former partner the Kurdish Fox is fighting against. He's also warring with the Bandidos motorcycle club and another upstart street gang known as the Dalen Network, led by a gangster known as the Greek, hiding out in Mexico. Things in Sweden are about to get really ugly. This is the Underworld Podcast.

[Sean Williams]

Foreign.

[Danny Gold]

Welcome back to the Underworld Podcast, the best organized crime podcast that has ever existed. Where every week two journalists who have reported on this stuff all over the world bring you a new story on international organized crime literally every week, all over the 6,000 word scripts, every single week on a new topic. Do you people understand how hard that is? And we just, we just keep pumping it out. Are they perfect? No. Do they have great story structure also? No, but they're getting done and they are educational and entertaining. I am Danny Gold, one of your hosts. I'm joined by modern day warrior poet and reformed Berlin party boy, Sean Williams. Sean, I know it's tough for you, but please try to keep the racism down this episode. Sean actually hates Swedish people and actually all Nordic people, so we might have to censor him a bit this week.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, that's true. You can shove your Abba and your system Balag it up your backside where the sun don't shine, which is actually Scandinavia, right? All winter. Losers.

[Danny Gold]

I don't know what that means, but we did Get a lot of comments on another thing I don't want. It means about the Ashes. People were commenting about that nonstop. They seem to be giving you a hard time. I couldn't make heads of tail.

[Sean Williams]

To me they. They should be. And as we're recording this, they're about to play the third game and we're about to get our pants pulled down yet again. It's embarrassing and I hate England and everything it stands for.

[Danny Gold]

Just for the next few weeks, Cricket.

[Sean Williams]

Rugby, darts, it's the only thing that matters. Yeah, the dance is on to all the best sports are playing right now.

[Danny Gold]

Moving on. As always, you can support us and get bonus episodes on patriot.com/the otherworld podcast or on Spotify or on itunes or now on YouTube. This week is going to be an extra 20 minute bonus for this episode on the Wild Terrorism charges against two of our gang leaders that we're going to talk about in this episode. What else? Oh, dude, look at my Black Friday purchase. Look at these sunglasses. I just figured the people who hate me for wearing sunglasses when I do the podcast are going to hate these so much more. I saw them and I was like, they're going to hate this.

[Sean Williams]

I have to wear. Signing up to the Patreon in greater numbers so that he doesn't spend significant amounts of his money on things.

[Danny Gold]

All our. All our money on it. [e-mail] email us at the underworld podcastmail.com oh, also our focus has always been on making good podcasts. You know, like real podcasts. Mostly on Spotify actually. They, they're great to us. They support us. We couldn't do this without them. But since we've started doing video about four or five months ago, we really want to try to grow the YouTube. If you work in that capacity or know anyone who does holler at us, you know, let us know. It's confusing. We're old. Do we really have to make like s 60 second slot videos with like out of context sensationalized quotes with Sean making some stupid o face like in the video image? Because if, if we have to. Yeah, that like point like this. If we have to, we will do that. Just let us know if you know how to do that.

[Sean Williams]

Okay. Yeah. Are we not doing that already? That, that's.

[Danny Gold]

No, we have. We stop. I think we did for like a minute and then we stopped.

[Sean Williams]

Oh, damn. Okay.

[Danny Gold]

Okay.

[Sean Williams]

I'm just gonna intermittently do that dumb face like every 10 minutes. Just.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, we'll freeze frame it and then put it up. That's a great idea.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah.

[Danny Gold]

All right. We are going to dip back into the gangland wars of Sweden. You don't have to have listened to the last episode on this though. I think it was from two weeks ago, but it would give some good background. We went into the conditions that created Sweden's emerging underworld. The trend of teenage hitman, various Swedish social issues, all that. And we went into the death patrol for shot as gang war that started in 2015 and the gangland hit on Sweden's most popular rapper, Inar. We also talked about the book by Diamant Salihu which was a big source. And our friend of the show, Hugo, come on. Who I actually just spoke to recently and he told me that today I think that they just arrested a 12 year old for a gang hit in M and Malmo. And there was something too about paying like a another story that I haven't seen the details on about paying like a 17 year old white Swedish girl to like do some grenade attacks. But yeah, things are are still hectic as ever and we're going to get into why that is with what happened in the 2000s. So in the 2000s things get worse and Sweden sees a whole lot more gang violence, even more than the 2015, 2017, 2018 E era. And it's precipitated by the rise of the infamous Foxtrot, which is a gigantic criminal network led by the Kurdish Fox, who it becomes the biggest and most most prolific street gang. Sweden has even really merging into an organized crime group more so than like a regular street gang. I mean they go international hits in other European countries in the Middle east, all while evolving to becoming a big time drug importer and major drug trafficking organization. And in Sweden and elsewhere and they go to war with everyone from the international biker gangs like the Bandidos to street gangs like the Dallin Network to each other. In 2022, Sweden has around 62 shooting deaths, a record for them. In 2023 it's only 53 people that are shot and killed in Sweden, which again when we talk about Mexico, Brazil, America, it doesn't sound like a lot. But for context, during the same year, if you add up all the shooting deaths in Norway, Finland and Denmark, it wouldn't come close to half of that. By 2024 the shooting deaths have actually gone down a bit. But bombings had wait for it exploded to 317. Yeah, it's a Sean Williams joke right there. To 317 for the year again, only Albania and actually Montenegro have higher per capita death Rates in all of. Well, not death rates, but murder rates in all of Europe.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I'm writing that one down. I don't think we've done a Montenegro episode. Right. There's tons of our protagonists have come from there. Wasn't the. And the Pink Panthers. Aren't they a Montenegrin thing originally? I think they're from like round that way.

[Danny Gold]

I think a healthy amount of them are from Montenegro. I'm surprised. I mean, I'm sure you've been there.

[Sean Williams]

No, I have not. It's the only country in Europe I've not been to. I think.

[Danny Gold]

There you go. And sounds like an underworld trip for you to you to get on right now. I don't know if Andorra has that many organized criminals, but Montenegro definitely does.

[Sean Williams]

Yes.

[Danny Gold]

Okay. So here's what makes Sweden truly unique in this sense. It's the only European country where fatal shootings have risen significantly since the year 2000. While gun violence has declined to stabilize across the west of Europe. Sweden's trajectory has gone in the opposite direction, like steeply, dramatically upward. That's when we get in September 23, after the murder in the cold open and the Foxtrot internal fracture, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson making an unprecedented televised address to the nation saying, quote, sweden has never seen anything like this. No other country in Europe is seeing anything like this. He also summons the head of the Swedish armed forces to discuss using the military to help police, adding, quote, swedish laws aren't designed for gang wars and child soldiers. Now the story Foxtrot. The Foxtrot network and its leader, Rawa Majid, the Kurdish Fox, is the story of how Sweden got there. And he's not like Death Patrol or Shadas. He's not some two bit street gang leader. The guy is sophisticated, cunning and brutal. He took things to an entirely different level with international connections and business sense and no regard for the lives of anyone, including clearly the mother or other relatives of people he had beef with or the copious amounts of literal children he sent out into Sweden streets to kill.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, like a Wario kind of Fagan character. I mean, I'm glad you're out here because as you said, I do hate all Scandinavian people, in fact. So it's good that you're bursting their cutesy little bubble like all that IKEA bullshit. Yeah, I like it.

[Danny Gold]

They say. They say that the Curtis Fox watch. The what? That is a me bit where we're reversing roles here. They, they say that the Curtis Fox, he watched the gang wars of 2015 through 2020. And he studied them, recognizing an opportunity as he started to build his own gang. Lots of young men and teenagers, soldiers looking for generals or someone who could bring in some semblance of organization, logistics and connections to actually make some real money pushing drugs. Within no time, Foxtrot becomes one of Sweden's most powerful, if not the most powerful criminal group in Sweden, involved in large scale drug trafficking, not just there, but also all over the rest of the Nordic countries, leaving a trail of shootings, bombings, and contract killings in its wake. So Rawa Majid, or the Kurdish Fox, is actually born in Iran. His parents are from Suleimania, the second biggest city in the Kurdish region of Iraq, and coincidentally, the first place I ever went on a solo reporting trip way back in the day. Very cool city, like, amazing market, amazing people. I remember staying in like a $10 a night hotel with like a mattress on the floor. There was a surprisingly good Chinese restaurant on the roof. And later I was told there might have been a brothel operating out of it. But when I was there in 2012, true story. I was told Sumania was. Was great. Not so much in the 80s when the fox's parents are there. His mother is a peshmerga, which is the Kurdish militia back then that now is basically the KRG's military. I think more of a state military now than a militia, though they fought against Saddam. And of course, back then it was in the midst of the Iran Iraq War and also Saddam Hussein's brutal crackdown against the Iraqi Kurds. So in 1986, his mother flees on horseback across the mountains into the Kurdish area of Iran. I'm assuming it's PJAK territory, which is like the. The Iranian version of the PKKK or the YPG. She's already nine months pregnant. Allegedly. Or they say not allegedly, I guess, but people say she was nine months pregnant and the Fox was born in Iran shortly after she got there.

[Sean Williams]

That's Danny walking out of the hotel. Guys, did you. I heard there's a. They told me there's a brothel in it. Just watch out. Yeah, keep your. Keep your eyes peeled. Yeah, that is a good. That's a good origin story. That. That's right up there.

[Danny Gold]

The Majid one or. Or my story about.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, both.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, his origin story is pretty amazing too. Okay, so the young family, they make it to Sweden, where his parents get divorced and the father moves to Stockholm and gets remarried. His mother raises him, a single mom working long hours in health services, but a relative then uses her as a guarantor. On a loan, then defaults, screws her over. I think he used her as a guarantor without telling her. And leaves Rawat Rawa to grow up in poverty in Uppsala, which is a Swedish university city north of Stockholm and also a major gangland area. We get the sort of, you know, isolation, lack of integration stuff I went into detailing in the last episode. But, yeah, you know, poor single mom. They were actually homeless for a while, it says. And most of this information comes from Diamant Salihu's book When Nobody Is Listening. Again, a recommended underworld read. And as we'll see later on, even with his actions in 2020 in the 2000 and 20s, lots of details about Rawa are murky, and there are different reports in different outlets, especially when it comes to his location and where he's based. In his youth, the Fox hangs out with his older cousins who are getting into the street life, just as that sort of street gang life is emerging in the immigrant communities of Sweden. We're talking, like, late 90s, early 2000s. At school, he's quiet at first, unassuming. But then one year into high school, all of a sudden, he has a lot more confidence to go with, like, new clothes. And then shortly before graduating, he's got the car, the gold chains, the watch. He had been working with an older guy, a fence, selling stolen goods and selling drugs. He's making some money, but he gets arrested in 2006 and ends up doing three months in jail for selling stolen goods.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I remember that first flush of real confidence you get when you. When you dye your hair like Freddy Lumberg, and then you gel it into a Mohawk and then. And then you get sacked from your job at Curry's because the. Because the customers are scared at you or they're laughing at you. And then you dye your hair back the normal color.

[Danny Gold]

Right.

[Sean Williams]

And that you've got the color wrong and it's all black and you look like Robert Smith from the Cure. Those were. Yeah, how was that for you, that. That kind of experiences.

[Danny Gold]

But I got no. I got no idea what you're talking about. But I do love a little bit more to add to the Sean Williams origin story that we're cultivating here at.

[Sean Williams]

The Freddie Lumberg era at this.

[Danny Gold]

At this podcast. I don't even know who Freddie Lundberg. I mean, I know what the Cure is.

[Sean Williams]

Ironically. He's a Swedish guy. He's a Swedish footballer. Yeah, he's an icon, man. He was. He was on a billboard in Times Square, like, wearing CK pants or Something. I don't know. It's A good.

[Danny Gold]

Anyway, R.A. was Rawa's lawyer from those early days, would later tell reporters, quote, he was one of a group of young people in Uppsala who took a wrong turn very early. You could talk to some of them and even help to nudge them in the right direction, but there were others who you couldn't even talk to. And he was one of them. Three years later, at 23 years old, he's busted smuggling coke out of the Netherlands. Caught with half a kilo of it and 1.5 kilos of weed, as well as a whole lot of stolen vodka. He gets sentenced to eight years. In 2010, he does five years and gets paroled. And shortly after that he's working at his girlfriend's ice cream parlor or ice cream kiosk. You know, I think. I can't tell, but I feel like it's one of those, like, you know, European ones on the street where they have the bomb ass European Magnums, which are just an incredible. An incredible ice cream bar. Like we need. We need more of those.

[Sean Williams]

You don't get. I mean, honestly, man, Shrinkflation is a thing. Those things are tiny nowadays.

[Danny Gold]

They used to get a lot smaller. I've noticed that we have them in the States now, and they're getting a lot smaller. And it's not okay. There's a lot of other sources that say he had his own ice cream kiosk. He started. He was young, or that his mother ran one. But the girlfriend thing seems to be the most accurate. Anyway, he gets caught again with stolen phone cards and four kilos of gold, all stolen from robberies. And he also gets caught up in a kidnapping and extortion case. And he gets another prison sentence, three years, and is released in 2018. When he gets out, there's a period allegedly where he's trying to go straight, which, not sure if I buy it, but on the weekend, apparently he's selling clothes and toys at a popular flea market in Uppsala and maybe selling a little bit of weed there on the side. This is, of course, when the gang scene, Sweden's underworld is rapidly changing, in no small part due to the gang war between Shotas and Death Patrol. Grenades shootings, drug networks expanding like crazy, encrypted chats. The Kurdish Fox. He wants a piece and he starts to set up his Fox truck network.

[Sean Williams]

So. So just to be clear, like he's a complete lone war. Like a lone fox, I guess. At this point he's not affiliated with any of the guys in the other.

[Danny Gold]

Groups, you know, I, I don't think so. There's not that much information out there on it. I think he definitely ran with his older cousins who at that point were like involved in the world, but in that world. But I don't think he was part of any of these other networks or gangs. I could be wrong on that. There just wasn't that much information on him on it about that period. And I think that if anyone sully who would have mentioned it in his book. And he doesn't do that.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean, every time one of us says like there's not a lot of information out there, there's going to be an Insider video on YouTube in about what, six weeks, eight weeks? I don't know what's the pipeline of.

[Danny Gold]

Of when people do videos after us or when someone else has that information, like stealing stuff.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah, we'll see.

[Danny Gold]

So he begins recruiting, building alliances, establishing supply chains. He's connected with drug suppliers in the Netherlands and Spain. And he forges relationships with other criminal networks who would go on to be big allies, most notably the Bro Network and the Zero Network. He uses the fox as a symbol, creating a brand that members could rally around. Loyal members wear diamond studded gold rings shaped like foxes. Drug shipments have fox markings. And I don't know if you can hear it in the background. There's like dogs barking right outside my building. I don't know, dude. Is that adding the Fox network? Is it coming through?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, no, I can't. I can't hear it.

[Danny Gold]

It's good. I think it'd be good background noise for this, like when we're talking about. Although foxes, I don't have ever heard foxes, they like skitter. They don't like bark, you know, they sound like, like living hyp. Like a dolphin. I'm sorry, what?

[Sean Williams]

Nevermind. Let's move on.

[Danny Gold]

Anyway, dude, I lost my train of thought after that comment.

[Sean Williams]

All right, Sorry about that.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah. The drug shipments have fox markings. The Foxtrot network isn't based in any single neighborhood. It operates across Uppsala, Stockholm and eventually all of Sweden. It hires lots of miners. Foxtrot actually perfects the tactic that Death Patrol had pioneered, creating a pipeline of child soldiers who could carry out serious crimes with minimal legal consequences. Also, anyone who delivers drugs for them gets to claim the name Foxtrot and get their protection, which inspires a lot of loyalty too. Especially because Foxtrot becomes like the hot trendy thing. People want to claim it, it's cool, they want to play A role, but no free rides. Everyone puts in work.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah. Like a franchise system. It seems to be coming the thing across Europe. There's like the county lines. A lot of those gangs work on the franchise. And the Kinahan Cartel as well. Like just last week's episode that we did with Ed Caesar. That's only this one's got like, way cooler iconography. It sounds like all the kids want to be a part of it.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, I feel like the, the. It's different though, with the Kinahan network. Right? Like, those are serious, serious organized criminals. They're not letting 15 year olds like, you know, selling grams claim their name. Right?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Danny Gold]

You know, but. But yeah, I mean, that's essentially how Sinaloa worked too, right? It was a franchise.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah.

[Danny Gold]

But I think if you wrongly claimed it or didn't back it up, you.

[Sean Williams]

Know, you know, it's not a good idea.

[Danny Gold]

Didn't. Did not go well. Now, remember his older cousins that he always hang out with that I mentioned, they had essentially grown into gangsters. One of them shot was in something called the Headshot Gang, affiliated with Death Patrol. He must have pissed someone off because by 2018, there's a $150,000 bounty on his head. And in June of 2018, he shot and killed after being set up. Now, what's shocking is that people, including family members, start pointing the finger at the Fox, alleging he was involved in the setup. And it becomes accepted that the Fox had something to do with his killing. But I should point out that there's also quotes from friends of. Of his saying he would never do something like that to his cousin. Whatever the case, his mom convinces him he needs to leave the country. This actually is. Is contentious because Swedish police were not supposed to have let him leave the country due to charges or I think parole or something hanging over his head. And they knowingly do. He goes to the UK and then to the Netherlands before moving back to his parents hometown of Suleimania in northern Iraq. The family is connected, or they have relatives that are connected. And he proves adept at maneuvering. He's making investments and all that. But Shad has family there too, so he was kept on his toes the whole time, much of it while not actually physically being in Sweden. He's building this massive drug networking gang and he's organizing most, if not all of it through encrypted chat apps. First being Encro chat, I think later, something called Anom, like a N o M. Anonymous. He has a vast web of mules Brokers, delivery guys and hitman, all, all organized through these chats. In fact, the higher ups barely ever lay eyes on the product except through pictures on these apps. Which I guess, you know, now that I think about it, like seems relatively standard for, for a lot of higher ups, but it just seems a lot weirder in this case when it's all through these like chats.

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[Sean Williams]

Has the league ever seen anything like this?

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[Danny Gold]

You know.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, it's a shame man. You get like gangsters of old roaming around cities in flashy convertibles and tommy guns and pinstripe suits and then you get this guy and I guess all guys now, right? But just like really good at branding and slack channel. It's just kind of, it's kind of lame in a way.

[Danny Gold]

No, it really, really, I mean that, that is an accurate way of doing it, man. We should fucking hire him to do our, our YouTube channel. By the time he builds up Foxtrot over the next few years, he'll be moving 150 kilos of a variety of drugs every week. Right. It's not just coke, but a lot of amphetamines and X2 and sitting on a fortune of tens of millions. The Foxes gang says Diamant Salihu, is clan based, similar to the Kurdish gangs in Berlin we covered in one of our first episodes. He calls it an ethnically Kurdish family based criminal network, or clan. His parents are involved. He has top lieutenants that are relatives. They move large volumes of drugs from Spain and the Netherlands into Sweden and the other Nordic countries, where he also has lieutenants that are based there, while maintaining an army of soldiers and underlings concentrated in the cities of Uppsala and Stockholm. They deal with a lot of bitcoin and it makes it really hard for the Swedish cops to trace. He also being based in the Middle east for most of his career, is big on using the hawala system we've talked about and laundering the cash through Turkey, the Netherlands, Iraq and the uae. And Sean, I mean, you've done a bunch of stuff on the hawala system. Can you kind of break down, break it down real quick a little bit why it's so effective for laundering money?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah, it's the same as that Fei Chin as well, the flying money in China. But you've got like, let's say you got guy A in, I don't know, Dubai, and guy B in Stockholm. And guy A wants to get cash to guy B, so he reaches out to this local broker, which is Hawalada, I think they call him, and then he gives him the cash plus a small fee. And then they both agree on a password. And then the broker contacts a counterpart broker in Stockholm with the fee amount and the password. Right. And then guy B in Stockholm contacts this broker, tells him the password, and bingo, he gets the money. And the hauler guys just kind of settle the score between them later. So essentially no money has changed hands between anybody who's raising suspicions. Right. That's why the cops really can't get a leg into this system. And the whole, whole thing obviously has to work on a huge amount of trust and honor and there has to be a big network. But yeah, it works. I mean, around a quarter of a quarter of a trillion, in fact, dollars moves through this system each year, which is quite a lot of money for, for anyone. What's the end of the sentence? Quite a lot of money.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's it. Accurate. He's also got fake, but real import export companies set up the ship product, and by 2020, 2021, he set on taking over all of Stockholm, Sweden, and telling people eventually he wants to be the biggest drug dealer in Europe. But I guess I assume every drug dealer is like, I'm gonna be the biggest guy in here, you know, I guess that's what all drug dealers do. It's the guy who sold you like dimes in high school said, maybe not Europe, but you know what I'm saying, He's got insiders in police and customs. The Foxtrot network, at this point, it's not just some streaking, right? It's a transnational criminal organization with operations spanning drug trafficking, weapons smuggling and contract killings. He's also getting all the smaller networks and gangs to operate under him, saying, join Foxtrot, get protection, access to better drugs at better prices and more professional operations, or fight us, which no one wants to do. And all of this while never really being in Sweden. It's kind of wild. So much of it is done over the phone, you know, it's like Roblox gangsters. I don't even know how to describe it. Obviously in the drug trafficking world, communication and texts and phones are a big part, but again, this is just that to another level. And this period, 2019, 2021, 22, it's not just Foxtrot, but Swedish gang leaders hiding out in Spain, Turkey, Iraq, Dubai, using these message apps to direct 15 year olds to kill their enemies for like clout and sneaker money. Though I would say the going rate for like a professional type hit is in the tens of thousands. And apparently Malmo is where there's a lot of killers for hire. So we've talked about how Sweden has this problem with teen hitman gangs, carriers that are like 13, 14, 15. The curse. Fox takes it one step further. Him and his network are big on recruiting children who had never actually held a weapon before. Like not even younger gang members, just kids who aren't involved to do the hits and the bombings. They find them on message boards posting essentially like want ads on telegram, on signal, even Snapchat. And the mediums, the media starts calling them murder ads.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, that's another reason to ban social media for kids.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, one of like a million.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah.

[Danny Gold]

€3,000 to blow up a door in Malmo. 50,000 for a hidden Stockholm. €80,000 for a hidden Malmo at one point. That's for a higher up taking out. And you've got 13, 14 year olds signing up, writes the Telegraph co. The group chats have adventurous and exciting names like Bombing today and who wants to shoot someone in Stockholm. Which gets right to the point. Lisa Dos Santos, a Swedish prosecutor, told the Telegraph. It's not like before when they use encrypted. When they use encrypted phones on a closed network. Now you can take a gang job on Snapchat.

[Sean Williams]

Wait, that, that, that second one again. Let's have it one more time.

[Danny Gold]

Who wants to shoot someone in Stockholm?

[Sean Williams]

That one. That's. That's quite a good. Quite a good TV quiz name. Yeah. Adventurous and exciting. Tick and tick. I like it.

[Danny Gold]

Should we get on Snapchat? Is that where. Is that what we're missing out with? Like, please, should we do a podcast? Snapchat? I don't even know how to use that.

[Sean Williams]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Danny Gold]

Here's the title and subhead from a friend. 24 article in 2024, quote, despair in Sweden as gangs recruit kids as contract killers. And then below that in quotes. Bro, I think this is a text message from one of the shooters. Bro, I can't wait for my first dead body, wrote an 11 year old boy on Instagram. In Sweden, where gangs recruit children too young to be prosecuted as contract killers on chat apps. Stay motivated, it'll come. Answered his 19 year old contact. He went on to offer the kid $13,680 to carry out a murder, as well as clothes and transport to the scene of the crime. According to a police investigation of the exchange last year in the western province of farmland seen by AFP. In this case, four men aged 18 to 20 are accused of recruiting four minors aged 11 to 17 to work for a criminal gang. All were arrested before carrying out the crimes. So that's a, that's a big thing, a big position in Foxtrot and some of the other gangs, the recruiters, the like I guess you would call it, almost like assignment editors. Right? It's not just like the Kurtis Fox doling this out to everyone. He's got lieutenants for that.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean, surely there's a separate law against this kind of thing. Can you like soliciting a minor or some shit? I don't.

[Danny Gold]

I mean, it's conspiracy. Conspiracy to commit murder. I mean, for getting a young kid to do it.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, surely that you can throw a bunch of other crimes on top of it. Right?

[Danny Gold]

There might be something specific for. For recruiting teenagers, but I'm not. I mean, I don't know how it works in Sweden. I don't even know how it works in us. I think. I'm not sure. I think there is, but I honestly have no idea. Yeah, more from that article. Quote it is organized as a kind of job market where missions are published on discussion forums and the people accepting the assignments are increasingly young. Johan Olson, the head of the Swedish police's national operations or operations department, told reporters last month. Hits our subcontracted with the parties only communicating online, says a criminology professor at Stockholm. So yeah, pretty, pretty gnarly scene. And of course all this, you know, you got it in the rap videos on Instagram, YouTube. It spreads through youth culture in Sweden like wildfire. So the whole time after fleeing in 2018, the Kurdish fox is mostly living in Suleimania. He actually takes a trip to Dubai in spring of 2020 because of course, but the borders closed because of COVID His family can't get back to Iraq. So they all moved back to Sweden.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, wasn't it like Sweden that would basically screw it let all the old people died during COVID Or was that. Maybe that was just the uk. I feel like they just let it tear through like the population or something. There was something particular about Sweden actually. Don't reach out to us with your covert takes. Anyone. That's, that's.

[Danny Gold]

I don't, I don't know about that. But I do know that only like one source said that he had gone back to Sweden in this period and that was Sally Huss who seems to be the most source reporter. Most people seem to think he was already in Turkey by then, but I don't think that's true.

[Sean Williams]

Is like a, like a big crime reporter then for. For a newspaper or something like that.

[Danny Gold]

I think he's for a TV station. He's like the Sweden crime guy and he's written a coup of books on the subject. He does a lot of podcast interviews and stuff like that. But he seems to be, I think he's from Kosovo as well originally or his parents were. But he, he seems to extremely well connected and like well sourced and just a fantastic reporter on the source stuff. He's like, seems like the go to guy for foreign media to talk to as well. Shortly after he gets back to Sweden one of his mules get but gets busted with a ton of ecstasy. So he flees to Amsterdam before returning to Suleimania. And In August of 2020 the Swedish Police raid his mother's home in Sweden and confiscate a whole bunch of phones and hidden cash. And that's right around the time the Swedish police actually crack one of the encryption networks. I believe that's when they crack encroachat and their work leads to nearly 35 people all in Foxtrot, I think a lot more. But those in Foxtrot being sentenced to a total of almost 142 years in prison in 20 and 2021, which when you think about it is not that many years for 35 people, it's like four years a person. Right. Those convicted could be linked to drug deliveries where the curse Fox was the sender. And a large part of the drugs are shipped to Sweden hidden in boxes with legal goods such as olive oil and tahini. That's the import export company. A total of 761kg of drugs are seized, including cannabis, amphetamines, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin. It's a one stop shop. These guys, you know, they got everything you need. They're the kind of guys, they're going to come over with a briefcase, you know, and just give you a menu. I think it's that kind of vibe. He is of course at this point back safely in Iraqi Kurdistan, ordering and launching rocket attacks now all over Sweden.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I feel like he's now. Is he now a terrorist? Can't they charge him as a terrorist? I feel like he's sort of drifting into a different sort of designation.

[Danny Gold]

It's interesting you bring that up because he does get charged as a terrorist, but for much more politically minded activities, which we'll get to a little bit here and then a lot more in the bonus episode. If you sign up at the Patreon, Swedish government at this time is actually aware that he's in Iraq and they're pressuring the police there to do something and it even goes as high as the Swedish foreign minister making requests. But the Fox, like we said, he's connected there. The police actually do end up raiding a few addresses, but the Kurdish Fox is long gone. Likely tipped off at some point. He flees Iraq for Turkey and acquires what's known as a golden citizenship, meaning like he invested money. I think it's either 300,000 or 400,000 US in Turkey, which basically allows him to purchase citizenship there. Some accounts have this happening, like I said, in 2020, others 2022. And this, this is a big deal. Why? Because Turkey does not extradite its citizens. So the Kurdish Fox, he's basically untouchable to the European police at this point. And Interpol, who have a red notice out on him, can't do anything. The agency, not the band. That's another, another Sean joke right there. But that's, that's where we are, you know, as, as people, as a podcast.

[Sean Williams]

Well, I appreciate it.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah. Of course, he spotted in Turkey In April of 2022, I believe around that time he's also arrested randomly without the police actually knowing who he is at that point, like it's for some separate charge. But he's released soon after, allegedly after bribing his way out. I think it was a relatively minor charge, so. So maybe not even necessary to bribe. But all is not well in Sweden because In February of 2022, a massive shipment of drugs is seized. Police raid an apartment and confiscate 250 kilos of hash, 8 keys of weed, 61 keys of amphetamines, 2 of coke, 20 of some synthetic drugs, 10 of ketamine and 12 of MDMA. A cornucopia of substances, a drug pave, or as some would call it, a three day weekend for a young Sean Williams in Berlin and a bunch of his friends.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I'll just drift off into memory land for a minute, but yeah, yeah, cool. Well done. Nice one.

[Danny Gold]

Good. Good times. This particular drug shipment was actually a deal between Foxtrot and the Bandidos motorcycle club. Essentially the new guard teaming up with the old guard. And it was a deal that was structured where Foxtrot would sell the drugs at a lower price because the Bandidos agreed to share the risk of bringing it in. But alas, even the best laid plans. And then these two criminal organizations blame each other for the loss and the Kurdish Fox demands reparations. The Bandidos refuse to pay. And now you got to know the Bandidos, they're no joke, right? They're not street kids controlling 20 square blocks in Stockholm suburb. They are an international 1 percenter motorcycle club with a heavy presence all over Europe. Listen to our episode from I don't know, four months ago on on their war with the Hell's Angels all over Scandinavia. If you want more. But the Kurdish Fox and Foxtrot, they're kind of showing how powerful they are and they do not back down. Then in March of 2022, a man is found murdered outside of Bandido's clubhouse in a park car in southern Stockholm. The man turns out to be an innocent bystander, but it's believed he was thought to be a member of the bandidos and killed two weeks later, March 28, lunchtime at a gym in the Stockholm city center. A man walks over to the lifting area where Bedido's member is working as a personal trainer. The man, actually a 16 year old boy, pulls out a gun and is about to shoot his target when Another Jim Go or civilian seeing what's about to go down, intervenes, kind of grabs the kid. And in the ensuing scuffle, the civilian, who's a 53 year old father of three, is shot in the head.

[Sean Williams]

Oh, God.

[Danny Gold]

And this comes at a particularly wild time in Sweden, as the first three months of 2022 see a record breaking number of fatal shootings, which is 18 months later, a 17 year old is arrested near Bandido's clubhouse in Sweden carrying two bags of explosives. The teen had failed to detonate them and the officers find another man nearby that was badly beaten. And police seem to think that these guys were discovered in the mix. In the midst of a Foxtrot plot to go after the Bandidos. The Banditos discover them about to blow up the clubhouse. They promptly beat the crap out of one of them while the other escapes with the undetonated explosives. But the war on the Bandidos, I mean, that's a powerful statement, right? Sweden's new underworld kings taking on the old underworld kings. It's a real big sign of the changing of the guards. Police recover voice recordings of the Fox planning with an 18 year old to murder the leader of the Bandidos. But the police are able to find out about it beforehand and they prevent it from happening.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean, I see the benefits of using kids to do your bidding on like a legal kind of evil level, but surely at some point you got to pay to get a good job done. It doesn't feel like a sustainable business model. I mean, that's coming from a freelance journalist and podcaster, but yeah, I mean.

[Danny Gold]

When they're teenagers killing other teenagers, I feel like, you know, it's, it's whatever. But when you're going after like banditos, I feel like there was a lot of sloppiness there because again, these guys are, they're not, they're no joke, you know, they're serious. They're a serious, serious organization. At this time, Foxtrot is also allied with two smaller but powerful networks like we mentioned before, the Bro Network and the Zero Network. Eventually this war gets resolved along with the Bandidos. But it's clear to everyone from the cops to the street kids that the Kurdish Fox is calling the shots all over Sweden. It's a wake up call for the Swiss police, and he's doing it all from a $2 million mansion in Turkey. At the same time as the Bandidos war is going on. We're talking 2022, 2023. Foxtrot is fighting another war a second front, this time with another powerful gang, the Dallin Network, led by a man they call the Greek or the hockey player. Mikhail Tenzos. The Greek grows up in Stockholm and he's a talented hockey player, hence the. The nickname. He moves north for the 2015-2016 hockey season to play junior hockey. Apparently he does not have the grades to go to an elite hockey school, but he does have the talent. He dabbles in some minor crimes, eventually returning to Stockholm a few years later. He's caught on police surveillance video in September 2018, which is when the police start to piece together that he's becoming a major player in the drug trade, controlling the Soonsville market. Soons Vol. Being a relatively small city. Actually in Sweden around the same time, the founder of the Dallin Network, who went by Paki, is killed. That's.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean that's like saying the N word in the uk. But it's not. It's not a thing in the US Right?

[Danny Gold]

No, no, not at all. I mean, they call.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I know. I know that because. Yeah, my ex wife is Pakistani American and yeah, it kind of shocked me when I first heard them calling each other it.

[Danny Gold]

No. Yeah. You know, in. In Massachusetts they call like a bodega Paki, short for packaging.

[Sean Williams]

Oh my God.

[Danny Gold]

That's like. Are you going. Are you going to the package today?

[Sean Williams]

Wow. Okay. Yeah, Yeah.

[Danny Gold]

I don't know if they still. That was definitely the case 15 years ago. I don't know if they. You know, it's not a thing in the. Like, that's not a thing in the U.S. and again, his nickname. Not me saying it or describing him that way. Let's be clear on that, folks. By 2020. By 2020. The Greek. The Greek. The Greek's okay. I can say the Greek. Greek's okay. Sean.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I think. I think just about. Yeah, yeah, you can get away with that.

[Danny Gold]

The Greek and crazy thing here, he's not even Greek. I'm just kidding. You know, nice records. Anyway, by 2022, his name is connected to a bunch of big drug cases and to Death Patrol, the contract killers. But in November 2020, according to one source, and 2022, according to another, a 21 year old known as the Defector breaks away from the Dallin network and becomes Foxtrot's main guy in the area in Soon Spa. It is a big betrayal and threats start to fly.

[Sean Williams]

Did he report that name before or after? I feel like that might have been a misstep if he was called it before he went I, I think it.

[Danny Gold]

Came, it came afterwards. It's not that. Maybe it's something different in Swedish because it's not that creative a nickname definitely, you know. Media report escalating threats over tax quote leave the city quote War quote Not hard to shoot doors or blow them up quote May the best man win.

[Sean Williams]

That last one is like a Victorian gentleman duel or something.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, a bit much. Yeah. War is also very like, be a little more creative. The Greek screen name or DM name, by the way, whatever is, is Plata o plomo. So you know a lot, a lot of references here. And war does kick off in Soonsvall in Stockholm with the requisite shootings and bombings. And according to media quote, Foxtrot's local cell relied on teenagers, some as young as 15, broken out of youth facilities and sent north as disposable hitmen. They opened fire in parking lots, planted explosives and tried to assassinate rivals relatives. Investigators eventually intercepted the network mid plot, arresting two dozen people and preventing several murders. By late February 2023, police had connected at least five murders and 15 attempted murders and 13 bombings to this conflict, according to Swedish outlet Afton Bladet. Afton Blade. Well, Sean, correct me.

[Sean Williams]

Afton Blood. Yeah, the afternoon page blat, I guess. Yeah, sure.

[Danny Gold]

In March, the father of one of the main figures in the conflict is killed and explosives also hit the relatives of a rapper connected to the feud. The war goes on, but both networks fracture a bit and the Greek flees the country in 2023, ending up in Mexico. And just this past October 2025, he's extradited after being caught in Cancun. And you know, honestly, I, I haven't been to Istanbul in years. I liked it, I like Solomonia. But if you're gonna go on the run from a gang war, I feel like, and I don't even like Cancun, but it's a, it's a better option though. I mean, maybe because he does get caught and extradited, which doesn't happen in the other two countries, so you never know. Of course, the third prong to this three front war is the internal foxtrot war that breaks out the civil war. As I broke down in the cold open with the Kurdish Fox's right hand man, Ismail Abdo, better known as Strawberry. But before we get to that, we need to tell the story of someone who many consider to the third biggest gang leader in Foxtrot, Mustafa Benzema Al Jiburi. Because it is just, it's, it's really wild. On October 15, shout out to Noah. Noah's birthday of 2023, a Swedish rapper by the name of 50, spelled 5 I f t y y starts live streaming on his Instagram. But it's not him doing the talking. Instead it's Mustafa brandishing a gold plated ak, talking all this stuff about his rivals while he has three balaclava clad gunmen in the background. And he's doing it all from Baghdad, Iraq. And he's also using the live stream to threaten a Swedish prosecutor, while also proving to everyone that despite the reports, he's not in fact dead. Little sidebar here. Have you ever watched like an Instagram live stream, like, or a live stream of anything? I, I mean, I just don't, like, I don't have any interest is that maybe it's like an old person thing. Like I've never been on Instagram and I felt compelled to like tap in. Like, even if it's someone I'm following, someone interested in, I just, I like don't care.

[Sean Williams]

No, I mean, I might be barely on Instagram. I'm going the other way, man. I'm going to end up reading stuff on parchment soon. I'm just like embracing it. I hate shit.

[Danny Gold]

I just, I don't understand the, like, how bored. There's reruns of Sopranos on anytime you want them. How bored are you people exactly?

[Sean Williams]

There's, there's not Anytime you want too much sport to be on this shit.

[Danny Gold]

I don't know, anytime you want, you can go on YouTube and just watch clips on the Sopranos. You don't have to live like this. Anyway, Mustafa is, or was, like I said, a major higher up in Foxtrot. But as the civil war escalates, he first sides with the Kurdish Fox against Strawberry before breaking away to form his own gang. He calls La Liga, announcing that he is the new boss in town. He claims he's going to be a gang leader for all of Sweden. For everyone. Power to the people. A new day. Everyone eats, everyone shares and family members are off limits. He's all over social media. He's doing interviews. He's taking shots at both Strawberry and the Kurdish Fox. He meets or collaborates with YouTubers, journalists, all that. At some point, he flees Sweden for Baghdad to protect himself. And after, there's a massive bounty placed on his head, said to be a million dollars. And I think it's from Strawberry at that point. So maybe it was before he. He backed away from the curse Fox. Mustafa knowing about the bounty, this is where it gets incredible. He turns the hitman onto his side and he fakes his own death, even having them post a fake hit video where he's all covered in blood. He even has the hitman collect the money for the hit, the bounty. So when he does that live stream in October, he's basically bragging about having faked out everyone. And you know what, like that's a solid live stream. I'm not gonna lie. That's a fair play to him. His reign though does not last long. He's killed in January of 2024 in Baghdad while in his Mercedes in a traffic jam, which is like three months after he posted that video by a 19 year old on a motorcycle who had been sent from Sweden. He's the one who guns him down. The shooter is caught almost immediately by the Iraqi police. I believe he's facing the death penalty in Iraq. Which you know, brings us to the cold open and Strawberry and the civil war that fractures Foxtrot just as it's becoming the most powerful organized crime group and drug trafficking operation in Sweden. Because these two other wars are simultaneously going on as the Foxtrot civil war sort of takes shape. And things soon turn even more vicious and, and global. Global on skills they already have. What we're talking about Iraq and Turkey here. So just to retrace, the Kurdish fox and his right hand man, Strawberry have a falling out perhaps over some double dealing over some money. A fight turns into a retaliatory shooting between crews. All this in Turkey. And then Strawberry's mother is gunned down in Sweden in September of 2023 and there's 11 more murders over the next two weeks.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, that's. There's so much going on in this show, like it's completely bonkers. I'm just thinking it was a partner of a diplomat. I bet it was causing all kinds of weird conversations between Sweden and Iraq. Like in the embassies there. I'm assuming they've got embassies. I mean there's, there's like a huge population crossover. Right. So yeah, they must do well at this point.

[Danny Gold]

They're both in Turkey, so.

[Sean Williams]

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

[Danny Gold]

But even when, even when he was in Iraq, the Iraqis just weren't really doing much about it, I don't think. I think they take the Swedes, they've.

[Sean Williams]

Got bigger fish to fry, I guess.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, they're just not too worried about, about the Swedes demanding anything now. Ismail Abdo or Strawberry is born in Sweden, Uppsala in 1990. His mother is from Turkey, his father Lebanese. I believe both are Kurdish. As well. And his nickname comes from his family business importing strawberries, which in 2024, there's actually a raid on strawberry booths which apparently pop up all over Sweden in the summer months and which strawberry used to launder proceeds. The article, though weirdly doesn't mention Ismail Abdo in it, but it says, quote, the illegal sale of strawberries in Sweden has been linked to a sophisticated network of organized crime, with top gang members allegedly using strawberry stands to launder money. During the month of June, Swedish police officers and environmental inspectors conducted coordinated raids on 15 temporary strawberry sellers in several cities.

[Sean Williams]

There's always money in the strawberry stand.

[Danny Gold]

That's pretty solid, dude.

[Sean Williams]

There you go.

[Danny Gold]

There you go. Yeah, that was well done. Well done.

[Sean Williams]

They come infrequently, but they come.

[Danny Gold]

I'm actually ashamed I didn't. I didn't come up with that and I left it to you to come up with.

[Sean Williams]

But, well, I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed of you.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah. Anyway, Strawberry follows the similar trajectory to all these guys, right? He grows up, second generation in these neighborhoods, gets bagged up on a weapons and drug charge in 2016 and sentenced to five years. He does, I think three. In his release in November of 2019, when Foxtrot is just getting going, he quickly rises to the top and is said to be the major brains behind operations and logistics for the network. In 2022, Swedish police look to charge him with smuggling a 100 kilo shipment of amphetamines into Sweden. And he hightails it to Turkey just like the boss man, soon having an international arrest warrant issued for him. The two men are running Foxtrot from Turkish soil, beyond the reach of Swedish justice, courting the violence and drug trafficking through encrypted messages and a network of subordinates. And then the fracture.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean, going again back to the Kinahan episode from last week, it's truly, truly insane how much stuff has come out of those. It's the Encro chat and the Sky ACC bus. It's like an actual backlog. Mountains of cases are Interpol and Europol. It's just like still tumbling out now.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, yeah, it's nuts. Strawberry wastes no time and he leads his own organization called the Roomba Network and goes to war. In the immediate aftermath, multiple members of the Curse Box's family are attacked. The Nothing is off limits. It gets to the point where relatives of both are fleeing Sweden for their own safety. In March 2024, a member of the Foxes organization is killed in Turkey, reportedly in revenge for a Cafe attack in Istanbul. And it's truly international, this gang war. There's a hit in Slovenia as well. Meanwhile, there's attacks all over Sweden, including kids and innocent bystanders getting caught up. But as they tend to do in international gang wars, things start to get a little murky in the fall of 2023. The Kurdish fox flees Turkey and some say it's because Strawberry puts a million dollar bounty on his head, which, I mean, the guy killed his mother, so a million dollar bounty seems legit. Others say he flees because he actually fears extradition, which is on the table because he gets arrested in Turkey on forgery charges, which could mean his citizenship, the golden citizenship, would get revoked. And then it's fair game for the Swedish authorities. Whatever the case, he leaves Turkey and he heads to the region of his birthday. Not Suleimaniya, but the mountainous Iranian region, northwest Iran bordering Iraq, the sort of Kurdish areas of Iraq. There he's caught and arrested by the Iranian authorities who soon put him to work doing the dirty work of the Iranian regime, using his network to attack Jewish and Israeli targets in Sweden as well as Iranian dissidents in exchange for protection in Tehran. And he does like there's multiple incidents of this. It's confirmed by Swedish security services, Mossad, the US who sanction him and the UK who sanctioned him. And he's not being sanctioned for drug dealing, he's being sanctioned for terrorist acts. So yes, this episode is super long and there's a ton of stuff to talk about when it comes to the terrorism designation and all the stuff with Iran and those attacks. So we decided to do a bonus on it on the Patreon 20 minutes patreon.com normal podcast. We're going to be trying to do multiple of these a month. This sort of bonus add ons for these episodes as well as the interviews we put up there and some stash houses. So sign up and support. You can do it on Spotify on iTunes or patreon.com/the Underworld podcast.

[Sean Williams]

But yeah, yeah, yeah, nice.

[Danny Gold]

We got to do what we got to do. We got to make more money off this Patreon stuff. So another crazy thing is that Strawberry, he might also be using his network to do the dirty work of the IRGC. He himself is arrested by Turkey in May of 2024 for possession of a firearm, though he's released on bail. And remember he, he's also a Turkish citizen. He had done the, the golden citizenship thing, but he's also on interposed list of the world's most Wanted criminals at this point. Most believe by this time his network Roomba had eclipsed Foxtrot as the most as the more powerful one. The multi front war had just taken its toll as well as him having to flee to Iran. And as of right now, both Foxtrot and Roomba are severely weakened, especially as Sweden is finally cracking down. And in July of this year, Strawberry is actually arrested in Turkey again along with 18 others in a crackdown on drug traffickers. He's believed to still be in custody today. And these are like, this isn't like the throwaway charges, this is like serious, serious charges. The Fox is allegedly somewhere in Iran, maybe in the mountainous Kurdish region and protected by the regime. Swedish prosecutors have also issued issued multiple exhibition requests, all unsuccessful. Henrik Soderman or Suderman, the prosecutor handling the case, told reporters, quote, we have been looking for him for about five years now and we haven't found him yet. He's facing international sanctions from the States too, over his terrorism links. And let me tell you, that makes it real tough to do business. So both sides of the Foxtrot network have been severely weakened, as has the Downland network shot as Death Patrol. But all of this, of course, leave the streets more open. Vacuums of power and a whole bunch of young shooters trying to claim that power. It's kind of hard to put the toothpaste back into the bottle with this sort of stuff, right? In 2025, Swedish police estimate 17,500 active gang members and 50,000 people connected to them, which for a country, 10 million, I mean that is kind of wild right there, you know. Still, murders were way down in 2024 despite the first six months of that year seeing a 258% increase over 2023 in children under 15 being involved in murder, attempted murder or conspiracy to commit murder. And a big reason for the, the sort of decrease is that Sweeness changed its tune on criminal justice. They expand police powers to make it easier to tap phones and do surveillance. They've made it easier for witnesses to testify and introduce. I think they introduced a Woodsec program which apparently they didn't have before, which sounds insane, but what. Everything I found said that that was the case. They also increased police and prison funding. There's even a plan to ship some prisoners to Estonia to house them, to free up space for an overburdened system. The government is also proposing lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13. And they just proposed stripping dual citizens convicted of gang related crimes of their citizenships, allowing them to be deported. This also follows major changes in immigration policy. They've been tightening it so that there's been a sharp drop in asylum seekers. They've also started deporting non citizen gang convicts. And on the other side, they've invested more heavily in language training and jobs programs in some of the more vulnerable neighborhoods.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean I get with these changes, it's insane that you wouldn't deport convicted foreign national gang members in the first place. That seems like a pretty open goal.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, yeah, I mean that's, that's in general seems like something that, that. Yeah, I mean it's, that's in the States right now. It's a lot of debate over that. But the gang wars and the war on crime continues. In 2025, Swedish police began focusing more heavily on targeting gang leaders abroad, arresting 30 wanted criminals, most recently a top leader from Gothenburg who was bagged up in Cape Verde. There's apparently one of the more serious gang wars occurring in the country happening in Gothenburg right now. So major crackdown at hand. But the Swedish condition, as its neighbors call it, has spread to other parts of Scandinavia too. From a recent Telegraph article, quote, Swedish youths are being anonymously hired through social media for acts of violence in Denmark as though they were Deliveroo drivers. This is something very new. They're recruiting a very young, completely unknown adolescent, said a Danish criminologist. There's increased demand for violence and these gangs have noticed it's less risky for them to use these channels. Explosions are still pretty high too. And while I, I couldn't find total stats for 2025 yet, the issue has clearly not going away. As we talked about 12 year old and Malmo just arrested for for gang murder. There's also a big to do over some of the teen hit men by being higher now actually being teen hit women, which is a crazy sort of change. Also interestingly, it seems like some of the gangs in Sweden have really turned into more organized aspects. Like lots of reports of them recently infiltrating Swedish welfare sector, local politics, legal and education systems and juvenile detention care. And I haven't seen a ton of reporting on it, but in 2023 the Financial Times has a big article claiming, quote, criminal gangs across the country are involving beyond the drug trade. Growing evidence suggests these networks have infiltrated some public services, political parties and even the criminal justice system. Police and local politicians say there is increasing evidence that gangs are now making more money from activities such as fraud and even running parts of the welfare state. One estimate suggests criminal profits at 570 million, which is about twice as much as they make from the drug trade. Quote, we have a system where criminal networks run schools and care homes. We've had 20 years of deregulation and we have been too naive. We have a school system that works against integration by segregating, says Pedling, referring to a practice that means poor areas are often left with the worst schools. Street wars are not over as well. In April this year, there was a triple murder in a hair salon, a shooting where the three victims were all between the ages of 14 and 20. A 16 year old was arrested, arrested originally, or detained, but then let go. And the killings were mean, unsolved, though one of the victims is known to police and was investigated over a planned attack on a relative of Strawberry. Also quote, the attack came on the eve of the Walpurgis Spring Festival, when loud, loud, large crowds are expected to descend on the streets of Uppsala, a university town north of Stockholm known in Sweden as Walberg University students gather in the city for champagne breakfast, herring lunches and a raft race on the river.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I mean, between that amid, some of these guys have got their ass together on Mad Drinking Festival. So there's a. There's one in the pro column for Sweden in this giant mess that it's going through.

[Danny Gold]

Valberg doesn't sound that appealing to me. I'm not a heroin guy. A heroin guy.

[Sean Williams]

Heroin.

[Danny Gold]

But. But Midsummer it sounds. I want to go to Midsummer, dude. Really?

[Sean Williams]

Yeah, I did it once in Berlin with one of my old friends who's Swedish, and it was. It was pretty full on, like a shot. I imagine it was after every single shake hands and everyone does a shot every like five minutes. Pretty nice.

[Danny Gold]

And is the love parade there too? Or is that. No, that's Berlin. Right. Doesn't Sweden have a big tattoo festival as well?

[Sean Williams]

They will do. I mean, they're all in Berlin now, but yeah, I guess so. I don't know. Maybe. No. Yep. Yeah.

[Danny Gold]

Who knows? Anyway, if you want to hear more about the terrorism charges on the Kurdish Fox and Strawberry and them attacking Jewish and Israeli sites in Europe, patreon.com the Underworld podcast, or sign up for bonus episodes on Spotify, itunes or on YouTube. Thank you guys for tuning in. Let us know what you think of my sunglasses. Please don't. And anything else. Sean, you guys want to argue in the comments? It's gonna be great for our algorithm.

[Sean Williams]

It sounds like your voice is doing great by this point. So.

[Danny Gold]

Yeah, my voice is cooked right now, so, yeah. Thanks, guys. And as always, happy holidays. I guess.

[Sean Williams]

Yeah.

[Danny Gold]

Happy New Year. I don't know.

[Sean Williams]

I don't know.

[Danny Gold]

Happy, happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas. Enjoy yourselves. Peace.

[Sean Williams]

Sam. Sa.