The US has long labeled Iran as “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism,” yet Tehran’s ambitions extend beyond backing Shia and Sunni Islamist groups in the Middle East. The US Treasury Department sanctioned Sweden’s Foxtrot gang on March 13 for its ties to the regime, underscoring Tehran’s longstanding practice of cultivating criminal networks across Europe and the Americas to assassinate dissidents and target American, European, and Israeli interests.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Foxtrot Network as a transnational criminal organization (TCO) for its involvement in drug trafficking and attacks against Israelis and Jews in Europe. The gang’s leader, Rawa Majid—known as “the Kurdish Fox”—was specifically recruited by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) after fleeing Turkey for Iran in September 2023. Majid, who faces numerous Swedish charges for narcotics and firearms trafficking, worked with Iranian agents to orchestrate an attempted attack on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in January 2024.
Foxtrot, one of Sweden’s most notorious criminal gangs, is responsible for shootings, contract killings, and arms and drug trafficking that contribute significantly to the country’s escalating violence. Its rival, the Rumba crime group—led by Kurdish-Swedish criminal Ismail Abdo, known as “the Strawberry”—carried out a shooting targeting the Israeli embassy in Stockholm at Tehran’s direction in May 2024. While Iran supports both factions, Israeli intelligence uncovered that Tehran exploits the groups’ rivalry to advance its own agenda and shared these findings with Swedish authorities.
In January 2024, OFAC and the UK jointly sanctioned a network of individuals tasked with assassinating Iranian dissidents and opposition activists abroad at Tehran’s behest. The network, led by Iran-based narcotics trafficker Naji Sharif Zindashti, played a central role in Iran’s transnational repression operations by carrying out assassinations and kidnappings across multiple continents under the direction of the MOI.
Operating under Zindashti’s orders, Canadian Hells Angels member Damion Patrick John Ryan was recruited to assassinate Iranian exiles in the US. Ryan, who has an extensive criminal record involving firearms and drug trafficking, enlisted fellow Canadian and Hells Angels affiliate Adam Richard Pearson to carry out the killings.
The MOI is not the only Iranian intelligence branch leveraging the Hells Angels. In Germany, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) enlisted fugitive gang boss and dual German-Iranian national Ramin Yektaparast to orchestrate attacks on Jewish sites, including the attempted arson of a Düsseldorf synagogue in March 2022. After the foiled attack, Yektaparast fled to Iran, where reports suggest he was assassinated by the Mossad a month later.
According to Iran International, the IRGC’s Quds Force operates three assassination squads under the so-called “German Network,” tasked with targeting Iranian dissidents and Jewish individuals across Europe. Citing an anonymous source, the report claimed Unit 840 of the Quds Force, which specializes in operations against Western and opposition targets, is overseeing new missions on European soil.
Beyond direct attacks, Iran uses criminal networks for intelligence gathering. UK Security Minister Tom Tugendhat warned in 2023 that Tehran had enlisted British organized crime groups to surveil Jewish communities, likely as a prelude to targeted assassinations. He stressed that Iran was leveraging “non-traditional sources” to orchestrate threats against prominent Jewish figures.
Iran’s reach into organized crime spans continents, as the IRGC collaborated with an Eastern European crime syndicate to orchestrate the assassination of a US citizen of Iranian origin in New York. The operation was directed by Iran-based operative Rafat Amirov, who oversaw surveillance and an attempted hit on Iranian journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad. The US Department of Justice charged Amirov and two gang associates with murder-for-hire and money laundering in January 2023.
The Iranian intelligence apparatus has a history of attempting similar operations on US soil. The Department of Justice uncovered a Quds Force-directed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US using explosives in 2011. The plan involved Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalized US citizen of Iranian origin, and senior Quds Force operative Gholam Shakuri. Arbabsiar attempted to hire a Mexico-based cartel for $1.5 million to conduct the hit, wiring $100,000 as a down payment before his arrest at JFK Airport on September 29, 2011.
