Sweden's teenage girl assassins: How ruthless mobsters are recruiting 'young blond

 

Swedish criminal gangs are enlisting teenage girls to carry out brutal killings and maim rivals in 'napalm' bomb attacks in gang-ravaged Swedish cities.

Girls as young as 15 are recruited on social media as 'child soldiers' and given cash to complete killings before spending the blood money on clothes and handbags.

The nordic nation, once considered a haven of low crime, has been gripped by extreme gang violence in recent years and has one of Europe's worst gun crime rates with frequent gangland shootings and bombings. 

Children have been used by gangs to commit crimes on an unprecedented scale, with the country this month moving to reduce the age of criminal responsibility to 13.

But while many have typically been male, vulnerable and from impoverished or migrant backgrounds, mobsters are now seeking out young girls. 

The attackers, known as 'Green Women', are increasingly 'young, blonde, typical' Swedish girls, and are thought to attract less suspicion when carrying out or aiding savage attacks.    

They are promised quick cash, with bounties of up to £13,000 offered for a successful hit. Less risky tasks, including mixing napalm to help with assassinations can also fetch thousands. 

Once signed up, the young recruits carry out gang bosses' dirty work, assassinating relatives of rival gangsters and other targets, often without ever meeting the person who is ordering the killing.

Many are keen to demonstrate they are more ruthless than their male counterparts. 

One girl, Olivia, was caught on CCTV casually delivering bags containing an explosive nicknamed 'napalm' after being hired to build and deliver a firebomb for an arson attack on a rival gang.

The 17-year-old was approached by a gang 'handler' on social media who offered her money and told her she must help with the petrol bomb attack 'today'.

She then went to buy petrol, petrol cans and further ingredients to assemble the Molotov-style firebomb, Swedish investigators said.

After combining the ingredients she handed them over to a pair of male gangsters.

She was later found to have texted her boyfriend to say the handover 'went ok'.

He texted her back a link to a news story about the resulting attack accompanied by a Swedish slang term, translating as 'wild' or 'cool'. 

The teenager was handed a one-year prison sentence for aiding and abetting arson.

Lisa dos Santos, a Swedish prosecutor, told the Telegraph: 'They [the gangs] call them Green Ladies, green as in newbies, because the police initially didn't look at them in the same way as the men.

'The police are now aware that girls are taking part but I think it's still easier for them to fly under the radar.'

Evin Cetin, a youth crime expert and lawyer, said the recruitment of young girls was a 'strategic plan' by gangs because 'the Swedish system, the police, would never think to stop a blonde Swedish girl'.

'Girls are often identified as victims ... but their participation in criminal circles is much more widespread than what we have long assumed,' Sweden's Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said in April.  

'I had a case involving a 15-year-old girl recruited to shoot someone in the head,' Stockholm prosecutor Ida Arnell said. 

'She was able to choose the type of mission she wanted, in other words, to aim at the guy's door or his head. She chose the head.'

Olivia was one of 280 girls aged between 15 to 17 who were charged with murder, manslaughter or other violent offences last year.

It is unclear how many were linked to organized crime but Swedish investigators claim the numbers may be much higher as many are not prosecuted.

Children have been seen as ideal targets for gangs because until this month those under 15 would not be held criminally responsible for their actions.

The country eventually lowered the age of criminal responsibility to 13 after a surge in under-15s suspected of murder, aiding and abetting murder or attempted murder. 

In the first six months of 2024, there were 93 cases, three times the same period the year before. 

But the number of gang-related shootings and murders decreased as a whole in 2024 and are slowing again this year. 

The increase in girls suspected of serious gang crimes caused a diplomatic row with Hungary after Sweden accused Viktor Orban of attempting to 'dismantle' the rule of law.