Ninos Afram, a Syriac Christian man, was shot dead on April 2, 2026, after gunfire targeted his vehicle in the Grusåsen area of Södertälje, Sweden. He was transported to hospital in critical condition and died at 1:00 p.m. Afram was the son of Syriac activist Dr. Abrohom Afram. No suspects have been arrested, and police are reviewing surveillance footage. Current reporting suggests the motive was crime-related rather than religious.
Södertälje is one of Sweden’s most troubled cities. One-third of its population is of Syriac descent, and more than half has a foreign background. Swedish police named Södertälje a focus of concern in their 2025 organized crime report, noting that young people from immigrant backgrounds have become part of the gang violence problem.
As many people were shot dead in Södertälje in one year as in all of London. Criminal networks have been advancing into local politics there as far back as 2011. Sweden’s vice National Police Commissioner stated that approximately 40 crime clans came to Sweden solely to pursue organized crime, settling primarily in Stockholm, Södertälje, Gothenburg, Malmö, Landskrona, and Jönköping, with extended families raising children to continue criminal operations and no ambition to integrate.
Amid the general pattern of non-Swedes committing violent crimes in Sweden, a broader trend is developing in which Iran uses Muslim street gangs as proxies.
The central organization in this network is the Foxtrot gang, founded in 2010 and based in Sweden, involved in drug trafficking, arms trafficking, shootings, and contract killings across Northern Europe.
In March 2025, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned both the Foxtrot network and its leader Rawa Majid, a Swedish national of Kurdish Iranian origin and son of Kurdish Iranian refugees, accusing them of carrying out operations on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that Iran had “increasingly used criminal networks as proxies” with “no regard for the cost to communities across Europe,” and pledged to hold accountable those furthering Iran’s agenda.
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