Criminal gangs across Europe are increasingly exploiting minors for illegal activities, offering staggering financial incentives — up to €20,000 for murders — and leveraging social media platforms to recruit young people into their operations.
Europol’s latest intelligence briefing reveals how these networks are evolving, using coded language, emotional manipulation, and even “gamification” strategies to entice minors into carrying out crimes ranging from drug trafficking to violent attacks.
Data from the European Union’s own law enforcement agency indicates that minors are now involved in over 70 percent of criminal markets, including cybercrime, drug trafficking, migrant smuggling, and property crime.
Its briefing reveals how criminal networks are now using encrypted messaging apps and social media platforms to reach minors, typically targeting those aged 13 to 17. Popular social media apps such as Snapchat and WhatsApp provide anonymity and direct communication channels that eliminate the need for face-to-face meetings. Recruiters lure potential operatives with promises of “easy money” and “quick cash,” often disguising illegal tasks as legitimate opportunities.
The use of coded communication, such as emojis and slang terms, by recruiters further obscures the true nature of their operations, while self-deleting chats make it increasingly difficult for law enforcement to track correspondence and collect evidence.
By mimicking the language of social media influencers and presenting illegal activities as “missions” or “challenges,” gangs are capitalizing on the familiarity of online gaming and social media trends, trivializing the actions as something from a video game. Rewards for completing tasks further incentivize participation, fostering a sense of achievement while obscuring the criminal nature of the activities.
Europol noted that minors are playing an increasingly prominent role in drug trafficking, particularly in the cocaine and cannabis markets. Their tasks range from serving as street dealers and couriers to extracting drugs from shipping containers. The use of minors in “rip-off” activities — stealing drugs from distribution channels or from rival gangs — now accounts for nearly 10 percent of cases in some countries.
Minors are often moved between regions by the predominantly migrant gangs to avoid detection and limit their visibility to local law enforcement. Their limited awareness of the criminal network’s broader structure, combined with clean criminal records, makes them low-risk assets for gangs.
Disturbingly, minors are also being tasked with violent crimes, including extortion and murder. Criminal gangs again orchestrate these acts remotely using end-to-end encryption messaging apps. The law enforcement agency noted how weapons and ammunition are supplied by intermediaries, who also transport the minors to the crime scenes.
Gangs often exploit minors’ emotional vulnerabilities, using grooming techniques to foster trust and loyalty.
The epidemic is particularly pronounced in Sweden where youths are frequently reported in the media as being the perpetrators of heinous acts of violence.
Last month, a teenager was arrested in Malmö accused of shooting dead a man in his 50s, with police believing the assassination was a case of mistaken identity amid escalating gang warfare. At the crime scene, police officers discovered two pistols, a Kalashnikov rifle, and three grenades near the crime scene.
In October last year, a 16-year-old boy was arrested in Tullinge, south of Stockholm, on suspicion of committing three murders and two attempted murders in separate gang-related incidents within a 24-hour period.
He was caught traveling in a taxi away from the area and was found in possession of an automatic firearm, as well as an extra magazine of ammunition.
In April this year, a Polish father was shot in the head by a gang of youths in front of his 12-year-old son as they cycled towards a local swimming pool in Skärholmen, southern Stockholm. An Iraqi teen identified as Mohammed Khalid Mohammed Mohammed was later arrested for the murder.
In Germany in March, an 11-year-old Moroccan migrant who led a youth gang was arrested following more than 70 burglaries in Norderstedt, Schleswig-Holstein. Due to his age, he cannot be held criminally liable.
