European crackdown on contract killings and attempted murders arrests 300 in one year

A year-long European operation targeting contract killings and violent crime-for-hire has led to nearly 300 arrests, with nearly half linked to Swedish criminal networks, Swedish police report.

The operation, codenamed Grimm and led by Swedish authorities in cooperation with Europol and ten other countries, launched in 2025 to combat the growing trend of “violence as a service.” Criminal groups, often gangs, recruit young people—sometimes children—through social media to carry out serious crimes, including murders, assaults, and bombings, police say.

“We have achieved significant results through international cooperation, arresting a large number of individuals involved in ‘violence-as-a-service’ and preventing violent crime across Europe through improved information sharing,” said Theodor Smedius, a police inspector with Sweden’s National Operations Department (Noa), in a statement.

The participating countries include Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Iceland, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, and France. Despite the arrests, recruitment—particularly via social media—remains widespread, prompting police to increase collaboration with tech companies like Google, Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat.

Police have urged tech firms to do more to monitor and remove criminal activity from their platforms. “There are platforms that still do not participate. More must be done,” Smedius said. “We continuously provide knowledge to these companies, and they have the technology. It is high time they use it to increase surveillance and clean up their platforms to protect children and young people.”

In 2024, Denmark’s then-acting justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, and his Nordic counterparts invited representatives from Google, Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok to a meeting. Encrypted messaging services Signal and Telegram were also invited but did not attend.

Denmark has seen multiple cases of gangs hiring young people, particularly from Sweden, to commit crimes. Since early 2024, Danish police have investigated over 120 individuals in connection with contract crime, with 47 suspects being children or adolescents, according to a 2025 mapping by Danish broadcaster DR.