On the evening of 15 January 2025, a masked 15-year-old gunman entered a Turkish restaurant in Hamburg, Germany, and opened fire on a 49-year-old man. The shooter fled the scene, pursued by the victim and several of his companions. He tried to hide in a nearby restaurant, but the group followed him, beat him up and shot him. Both the victim and the assailant were arrested. 

The victim, a Russian citizen, is a senior figure in Chechen organized crime, according to experts. His young assailant, a Dutch national, had been hired to carry out the attack because of a territorial dispute within the notorious red-light district of the port city. He had allegedly been involved in violent criminal activity in North Rhine-Westphalia. However, he appears to have had no links to Hamburg’s criminal underworld and was brought in specifically for the shooting.  

Although the recruitment of minors into organized crime and violence-as-a-service is a relatively new phenomenon in Germany, other European countries have been faced with this issue for some time. The involvement of young people in drug trafficking is a Europe-wide trend, as highlighted in a recent Europol intelligence notification. In France, as part of a pattern of ‘ultra-juvenilization’ of crime, minors are frequently enlisted through social media and sent to sell drugs. These so-called ‘jobbers’ are said to be considered disposable by the gangs and criminal networks that employ them. Similarly, 65% of those arrested for drug trafficking in Brussels are minors. In the United Kingdom, gangs and networks known as county lines have recruited children as young as seven to act as drug couriers. In Madrid it has been reported that Latin American gangs have around 1 700 minors in their ranks. 

The presence of young people in wholesale drug trafficking has also become commonplace. According to Europol, offenders under the age of 18 are involved in up to 10% of cases in which drugs are found in shipping containers in certain EU countries. In 2023, the Port of Hamburg experienced a series of incursions, allegedly to recover a shipment of cocaine. A total of 45 intruders were arrested, most of whom were from the Netherlands. The youngest was just 16. It has even been reported that 15% of all drug couriers operating at Dutch ports are under 18.  

There are three different pathways to the criminal recruitment of minors. The first is external outreach on social media, which is increasingly taking place through youth-orientated groups and channels. Illegal activities are presented as an easy way to make money or gain status, and are often framed as a kind of challenge – the gamification of crime. Research by the GI-TOC has also found that some minors act as entrepreneurs, advertising their services on social media. In one case from France, a child under the age of 15 offered to act as a sicario (hired assassin) for ‘any kind of theft, kidnapping, debt recovery, contract enforcement, warnings, getting back a territory’.  

Secondly, there is the growing phenomenon of forced recruitment targeting unaccompanied juvenile refugees from North Africa or Afghanistan. Such cases have been reported in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. This practice is said to be occurring on an ‘industrial scale’, and is accompanied by severe violence.  

Finally, gangs exploit their young members by using them to commit crimes that carry a high risk of detection, as they are more likely to receive lenient treatment from the justice system. Organized criminal groups in northern Italy, in particular, are increasingly instrumentalizing minors. Investigations have revealed that ‘Ndrangheta clans have set up drug distribution networks in which children act as couriers and dealers. In southern Italy, the issue takes on a different yet equally concerning form. In Naples and Palermo, minors are not only recruited by criminal groups but also often placed into positions of leadership.  

These so-called paranze (‘small fish’, or juvenile gangsters) replicate the behaviour of traditional mafia bosses, but without their codes of restraint. In 2017, for instance, a 17-year-old gang leader in Ponticelli, Naples, was arrested for orchestrating a string of attacks on rival groups that echoed mafia-style punishment rituals but without going through the process of authorizations that traditional mafias would require. Similarly, in 2024, law enforcement dismantled a group of underage extortionists in Palermo who had been mimicking the tactics of the Cosa Nostra.  

Italy represents an exception in the European legal landscape, as its penal code permits the prosecution of juveniles involved in criminal activities, provided they are at least 14 years old. Other European authorities struggle to deal with this challenge, as their justice systems are more constrained in dealing with extreme violence and organized crime committed by minors. This has resulted in a form of criminal ‘child soldier’ emerging in Europe – highly vulnerable, easy to recruit, cheap and difficult to prosecute.  

In Gothenburg in 2024, a 14-year-old shot and killed a member of the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang. However, the age of criminal liability in Sweden is 15. Although the boy was convicted, with his case being described in court as a ‘gangland contract killing’, he was too young to be sentenced and was released. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of suspects under the age of 15 charged with homicide-related offences in Sweden tripled. And the trend has become transnational. Norway and Denmark have both reported an increase in violent offences committed by minors of Swedish origin, including targeted killings. Indeed, Europol recently launched a taskforce comprising eight countries to address the issue of young contract killers. 

Beyond the limited scope of criminal justice responses, prevention efforts also fall short of the challenge. While the Netherlands has implemented a targeted action programme against juvenile crime, other countries are still struggling to tackle the problem. Research by the GI-TOC indicates that online advertisements and channels offering illicit activities and violence-as-a-service are entirely uncontrolled. Instagram, Snapchat and various encrypted communication channels, such as Telegram, provide instant access to these services and remain unregulated. Online gaming platforms are used for grooming. Criminal actors are known to use engaging, influencer-like tactics to attract young people. These platforms are safe spaces for criminal recruitment, as protection for minors is almost entirely absent. 

There is a significant knowledge gap in Europe regarding the new methods of youth recruitment being employed by organized crime, and particularly those that are online. Furthermore, there is little in the way of best practice when it comes to prevention. In recent years, Europe’s efforts to combat organized crime have centred on disrupting transnational networks, particularly those involved in cocaine trafficking. However, the effects of these activities extend beyond the infiltration of economic infrastructure and state authorities.  

Organized crime is reaching deep into European societies and their youth. Addressing this challenge will require investment in better evidence collection, targeted prevention programmes for at-risk minors, updated criminal justice responses and intelligence sharing across European countries.