Europol Warns Children as Young as 13 Are Being Recruited Across EU for "Violence as a Service"

Criminal gangs across Europe are recruiting children as young as 13 to carry out shootings, bombings and other acts of violence on commission, European policing agency Europol has warned. The phenomenon, which Europol calls "violence as a service," is spreading quickly across the continent, with the Netherlands among the countries most affected.

In the past year, Europol has made 280 arrests linked to the recruitment of young people for violent crimes. About two-thirds of those arrested are suspected of being recruiters; the rest are accused of carrying out the actual violence. The agency says it has another 1,400 people in its sights as either recruiters or recruited youngsters.

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A new task force, eleven countries

The figures are the first results of an international task force, known as Operational Taskforce GRIMM, set up last year. Eleven countries are now participating: the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The aim is to tackle a model in which adult criminals pay young people, often minors, to do their dirty work: including threats, assaults, planting explosives, shootings and even contract killings.

"This phenomenon is spreading like wildfire across Europe," Andy Kraag, head of Europol's European Serious and Organised Crime Centre, told Dutch current affairs programme Nieuwsuur. "We are seeing it in all countries, with children who are getting younger. 13 or 14 is no exception. And the crimes are getting more violent."

How the recruitment works

Most of the recruitment happens online. According to Europol, gangs use social media platforms such as Snapchat, Telegram and TikTok, as well as gaming platforms popular with teenagers and people in their early twenties. In the past year alone, the task force identified 14,000 accounts on which criminal "jobs" were being advertised.

The networks tend to follow a fixed structure. At the top is the person ordering the crime, who contacts a recruiter. The recruiter then looks for a young person willing to take on the assignment, usually through encrypted messages. Once a recruit is found, a so-called "fixer" takes over, arranging weapons, transport and a hotel.

According to Kraag, the recruits are often promised quick money in attractive language. In reality, nine times out of ten, they get nothing at all. "These children are used as cannon fodder, while the criminals themselves keep their hands clean. The youngsters get arrested by the police and the only winners are the criminals."

The young perpetrators are also typically required to film what they have done as proof. Those videos are then shared in chat groups to glorify the violence and attract new recruits.

Cross-border cases involving the Netherlands

The Netherlands is heavily involved on both sides of the trade. Last year, three Swedish suspects aged between 24 and 28 were arrested in connection with a shooting in Oosterhout, in the province of Noord-Brabant, in which three men were killed. According to local journalist Sjoerd Marcelissen of regional newspaper BN DeStem, the operation appeared carefully planned: the suspects switched from a car to electric scooters and used a cycle path to reach their target.

Earlier this year, a 16-year-old boy from Sweden was arrested for a shooting at a detainee at the prison in Alphen aan den Rijn. And in the other direction, a 15-year-old from the Netherlands was arrested in Hamburg in early 2025 in connection with a shooting at a Russian-linked target in a restaurant.

Pressure on social media companies

Europol stresses that arrests alone will not solve the problem. The agency is now in talks with Snapchat, Meta and other major social media companies about what they can do to detect and remove recruitment posts. According to Kraag, those companies are increasingly recognising that they have a role to play in stopping this kind of "crime on demand."

On Wednesday, Europol is also adding three suspected ringleaders to a Europe-wide most-wanted list. They include one Swedish national and two Germans, all suspected of organising contract killings and other serious violence from abroad. Kraag did not rule out that Dutch suspects could be added to the list in the near future.