A teenager has been arrested in Spain for allegedly leading a hitman service that provided criminal clients with underage assassins.
Spain’s national police force said it had arrested a minor and his parents, all Swedish citizens, in their home in Alicante, from where the son and father operated their alleged murder-for-hire network.
The boy, reported to be just 14, “played a key role in the recruitment and payment of other minors hired to commit murders”, according to a police statement.
He allegedly recruited other youths from Sweden and Denmark on the messaging app Telegram, which he then used to provide details and instructions on targets and organise the delivery of weapons and explosives.
The rate for a hit was reportedly between €20,000 (£16,667) and €50,000.
The national police, who raided the family’s home earlier this month, said on Wednesday: “This home was set up as an operations centre, from where the suspects managed the social media accounts used to recruit young people and give the subsequent orders for the execution of murders.”
Police in Spain began to investigate the organisation after arresting a 17 year-old in May who was found loitering around a residential complex in Benalmádena on the Costa del Sol.
Investigators determined that the suspect, a Swedish national, had been flown into Spain to murder a motorbike gang member and intended to escape on the e-scooter provided by the organisation.
Sweden and Denmark’s police forces co-operated in the investigation. Two other minors, also of Swedish nationality, have been arrested in Denmark in possession of firearms and accused of planning to commit a murder.
All of the suspects arrested were Swedish and Danish nationals of North African descent, according to ABC.
Police sources said they were certain that the organisation had been behind several murders over recent years.
