US sanctions Swedish gang for alleged aid to Iranian attacks abroad

Rawa Majid is said to be leader of the Sweden based criminal gang, Foxtrot
Rawa Majid is said to be leader of the Sweden based criminal gang, Foxtrot

The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a Swedish criminal gang accused of assisting Iran in attacks on European soil, days after a former commander in Tehran revealed foreign groups had helped in killing dissidents in the past.

According to the US treasury, the gang known as the Foxtrot network has carried out attacks on Israelis and Jews in Europe and "orchestrated an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm" on behalf of Iran.

"Iran’s brazen use of transnational criminal organizations and narcotics traffickers underscores the regime’s attempts to achieve its aims through any means, with no regard for the cost to communities across Europe,” US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

The sanctions were hailed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio who said in a post on X that the move "makes us and our partners safer".

On Tuesday, Sweden's Security Police (SAPO) warned that the Scandinavian nation faces an escalating security threat from Iran, which has intensified its intelligence activities and use of criminal networks within the country.

"Iran's primary objective is to secure and strengthen its regime, closely linked to protecting the country from perceived external threats and circumventing sanctions," SAPO said in a statement.

Sanctioned alongside Foxtrot is its leader Rawa Majid, known also as the Kurdish Fox, who faces several charges of arms and narcotics trafficking in Sweden.

"Rawa Majid (Majid), who leads the gang, has specifically cooperated with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS)," the statement by US treasury read.

The move comes amid heightened tensions between Stockholm and Tehran, and follows shock admission by Iran's former Revolutionary Guards minister Mohsen Rafiqdoost this week that revenue from arms deals helped finance Tehran's assassinations of political opponents overseas in the 1980s and 1990s.

“The Basque separatist group in Spain carried out these assassinations for us. We paid them, and they conducted the killings on our behalf,” he said referring to the assassinations of a former Iranian prime minister and a former Iranian military commander in Paris, France in 1984.