Early on a Sunday night final 12 months, Anneli Berg stated “goodbye!” to her 16-year-old son Rio as he headed out to the health club along with his buddies. She anticipated him to reach again at their dwelling in Stockholm, Sweden in simply a few hours.
However Berg would by no means converse to her son once more.
Simply after 9 o’clock that night time in March 2025, a hooded stranger emerged from the darkish, got here up behind the group that had simply left the health club, pulled a gun and opened hearth. One teen was shot within the thigh. Rio was killed.
“It’s nonetheless onerous to imagine. Generally I really feel like I’m dreaming, like a nightmare,” Berg stated in an interview with ABC Information. “Why him? Why his buddies? Is there one thing that I do not know?”
Anneli Berg’s 16-year-old son Rio was killed in what high regulation enforcement officers in Western Europe say is a part of a rising and terrifying development.
ABC Information
There was nothing extra to know, the detectives instructed Berg. Rio “was simply on the fallacious place on the fallacious time,” she stated.
Swedish investigators stated the shooter was no skilled murderer – however one other teenage boy who had been recruited to kill.
High regulation enforcement officers in Western Europe stated Rio’s dying is a part of a rising and terrifying development of children being recruited and groomed on-line by legal gangs to commit heinous acts.
“It is like an affordable build-your-own contract killer scheme,” Catherine De Bolle, who till final month was government director of Europol, the European Union’s police company, instructed ABC Information.
And the issue of violence as a service, she stated, is going on on an “industrial scale.”
“Now, with the utilization of synthetic intelligence, with the brand new know-how, and with the truth that so many kids are on digital platforms, it is heaven for legal networks,” De Bolle stated. “That is actually worrying us.”
‘Violence as a service’
Catherine De Bolle, who till Could 2026 was government director of Europol, the European Union’s police company, instructed ABC Information legal networks don’t have any borders — and the digital setting is borderless as properly.
ABC Information
For six months, ABC Information has been investigating the rise of what officers name “violence as a service.” Police at the moment are investigating instances like this throughout Western Europe and, officers within the U.S. stated, they know the issue is transferring throughout the ocean.
“Felony gangs throughout the board have absolutely embraced the ability of the web” to commit their crimes, stated John Cohen, former head of intelligence for the Division of Homeland Safety.
“It’s occurring right here,” stated Cohen, an ABC Information contributor and an skilled on on-line radicalization and crime. “That is the fact of right this moment.”
Officers say it’s merely a computer-age twist on how legal organizations discover unsuspecting teenagers to do their soiled work: they lurk on gaming websites and messaging apps, looking for to recruit youngsters as younger as 13. The result’s little one foot troopers employed as hitmen, changing into each the perpetrators of crime and the victims of criminals.
The development so involved European regulation enforcement that Europol fashioned a working group final 12 months to fight the issue. Referred to as the Grimm Job Pressure — named for the Brothers Grimm’s darkish and harmful, cautionary fairytales — it particularly targets violence as a service and the recruitment of younger perpetrators into severe, organized crime.
They’ve already made practically 300 arrests for such crimes throughout Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Britain. Their investigations have recognized greater than 15,000 on-line accounts on well-liked on-line platforms, and greater than 1,500 individuals linked to violence as a service crimes — the overwhelming bulk of that are suspects and their numerous associates.
“That is spreading like wildfire,” stated Andy Kraag, the duty power’s lead investigator and the pinnacle of Europol‘s Critical and Organised Crime Centre. “And I’ll wager you it’ll not cease on the borders of Europe.”
Andy Kraag, the Europol process power’s lead investigator and the pinnacle of Europol‘s Critical and Organised Crime Centre, warns the the recruitment of younger perpetrators for violence as a service is “spreading like wildfire.”
ABC Information
Europol investigators have discovered that violence is now being bought as a part of the gig financial system and being enabled by a world that’s at all times on-line. Geography is irrelevant.
“Felony networks don’t have any borders. Felony networks don’t have any requirements. They don’t have any legal guidelines to obey,” De Bolle stated. “And after we have a look at the setting they’re working in, additionally the digital setting is borderless.”
Since Europol’s process power was launched in April 2025, their investigators have decided that no less than 10 contract killings in Western Europe have been carried out by minors. Predominantly employed by narcotics gangs, greater than 100 different crimes that concerned kids embody bombings, kidnappings, torture, shootings, stabbings and setting different youngsters on hearth.
A sample of luring minors in
The method follows a sample, in keeping with Europol: Somebody commissions the crime and funds it. Somebody then scours encrypted messaging apps and gaming platforms looking for new recruits. After which somebody arranges logistics and gives the weapon. In the long run, an inexperienced minor – who has no thought who employed them – pulls the set off.
The going price for the contracts can vary from only a few thousand {dollars} to a number of instances that, a Europol spokesperson stated. The newest figures they’ve seen in Sweden, as few as 3,000€ and as much as 40,000€ could be supplied for a job, with out specifying the precise sort of contract. Investigators are seeing related worth tags in France. However whereas a money prize could be dangled, it is typically by no means paid — significantly if the child finishing up the crime will get busted.
And a promised payout is not the one incentive, the spokesperson stated: for younger teenagers looking for acceptance, respect and recognition, the sense of belonging to a well-known organized crime gang can supply highly effective bait.
“These youngsters, they’re the proper foot troopers. Why? They don’t have any legal data, in order that they’re onerous to detect. These youngsters are weak. They are often manipulated,” Kraag stated. “They’ve been instructed that that is nothing totally different than the gaming that they have been doing, and so they get lured in. And, most of those youngsters get caught, as a result of they’d no thought what they’re doing.”
Police arrested the suspected shooter in Rio’s killing lower than an hour after the taking pictures, in keeping with court docket paperwork. Officers discovered the suspect a couple of hundred ft away from the scene, ready for a getaway taxi that had been ordered for him. The assailant nonetheless had the gun in his jacket, in keeping with court docket data, and was 16 years previous — the identical age as Rio.
Movies shared solely with ABC Information from Europol present what authorities say are precise assassinations carried out by youngsters — and a part of the rising drawback of violence as a service.
Europol
The shooter instructed investigators he had taken the mission as a result of he had a debt to repay, in keeping with court docket data. One other teen he knew supplied to loop him in on encrypted discussion groups the place he may get numerous legal assignments for cash — which he did.
However Rio was not the supposed goal and it was a case of mistaken identification, in keeping with court docket paperwork. The shooter was convicted of homicide, although he insisted he didn’t keep in mind pulling the set off. He was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in jail.
“The one factor he admitted was that it was the fallacious individuals and that he did it for cash as a result of he was in debt,” stated Berg. “I might ask him, was it value it to take one other boy’s life? In case you have been so scared, why did not you ask for assist? As a result of I feel ultimately, he did not solely destroy our lives, he destroyed his personal as properly, for cash.”
New frontier in combating crime
The brand new frontier of crime-fighting within the digital age means homing in on each the criminals – and dealing with the platforms used to lure youngsters in.
American officers stated they know all too properly how insidious legal schemes have gotten, and are warning of the rising risk posed to youngsters on-line by violence as a service choices.
The FBI instructed ABC Information it’s investigating greater than 450 topics who’re tied to violent on-line networks, together with legal gangs. Each single FBI area workplace throughout is engaged on such investigations.
“We’re decided to establish and cease those that goal probably the most weak members of our society – our youngsters and different at-risk people,” the FBI stated in a press release, including regulation enforcement wants assist from the group.
Anneli Berg nonetheless yearns for the goodbye to her son she’s going to by no means get. However she hopes that sharing the story of what occurred to Rio will encourage extra dad and mom to speak to their youngsters concerning the risks looking for them out on their pc and telephones.
“We’ve to be current in our children’ lives,” Berg stated. “We’ve to guard them, it is our job.”
