The shootings on September 26 and 27, 2023, are both linked to the Foxtrot conflict – where leader Rawa Majid and gang leader Ismail Abdo ended up on opposite sides.
In the first incident, a 60-year-old man was seriously injured in his villa in Åkersberga. The man had no connection to criminal activity, but someone registered at the address was linked to Ismail Abdo.
The next day, a group of five men were shot at with an automatic rifle while they were barbecuing late in the evening in a courtyard in Jordbro. A 23-year-old man was hit in the head and died, and another man was injured.
Randomness
None of the men are linked to gang criminality, and much suggests that they were randomly selected.
According to Södertörn District Court, a possible motive is that a rapper linked to the Majid side was shot dead a few hours earlier, and that someone wanted to take revenge by "shooting people from the general public to death in an area controlled by the opposing side".
The perpetrators in Jordbro left the scene in a similar white pickup truck that had been seen at the shooting in Åkersberga, but during the escape, they crashed into a row house. When the police arrived, they found weapons and phones in the vehicle, which led to several people being quickly arrested.
On Wednesday, three men and one woman, all in their 20s, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the shootings. One was convicted of murder and five counts of attempted murder, while the others – two of whom are siblings – were convicted of aiding and abetting the same.
Defenseless people
"It has been a matter of very serious and planned crimes with firearms against outsiders and defenseless people, which has resulted in life imprisonment for all those involved in the shootings," says presiding judge Michael Mackiewicz in a press release.
A sentencing guideline from the summer of 2023 forms the basis for the three who were convicted of aiding and abetting also receiving life imprisonment, according to Mackiewicz.
A fifth person was acquitted of murder and attempted murder but was sentenced to one year and ten months in prison for aggravated weapons offenses. A sixth person who was charged with aiding and abetting was fully acquitted, while a seventh received a conditional sentence for aggravated harboring of a criminal.
The court also found it proven that a 14-year-old boy participated in the shooting in Åkersberga. Due to his young age, he received no punishment.
The Foxtrot network, led by Rawa Majid from Uppsala, was engaged in extensive drug smuggling to Sweden for several years. The network has allied itself with several criminal networks in Sweden, which have assisted Foxtrot in carrying out serious violent crimes.
Between 2021 and 2023, the network was involved in at least four separate conflicts with other gangs, including the Dalen network in southern Stockholm.
In the summer of 2023, an internal split occurred within the network, resulting in a bloody conflict between people in Foxtrot. Among other things, the mother of one of the leading figures, Ismail Abdo, was murdered in her home outside Uppsala.
Abdo later became a leader in a new, rival network known to the police as Rumba.
Another leading figure in the conflict was shot dead in Iraq's capital Baghdad in early 2024. Three Swedes have been sentenced to death in Iraq for the murder. One of the sentences was later converted to imprisonment.
Source: PM from the National Operational Department (Noa), TT
