A Swedish teen has been charged in Australia, accused of using encrypted communication apps to help plan contract killings in Sweden and Denmark, said Australian, Danish and Swedish police Wednesday.
Australian police charged the 15-year-old boy with “allegedly using an encrypted application to facilitate plans for overseas contract killings on behalf of a transnational criminal syndicate,” the three forces said a joint statement.
“While in Australia, the young man is suspected of having attempted to recruit people to commit contract killings in Denmark and Sweden as part of ongoing gang conflicts in the Nordic region,” Lars Feldt-Rasmussen, Danish deputy chief superintendent of the National Special Crime Unit, said in the statement.
Australian police arrested him Wednesday after executing a search warrant in western Sydney, and he was refused bail at a children’s court hearing, said police. He is due back in court on June 11.
The boy was charged with two counts of “using a device connected to a telecommunications network with intention to commit a serious offence”: one count related to “murder” and the other to “conspiracy to murder”.
Both offences carry a possible life sentence, said the police statement.
In a separate statement, Danish police said the teenager was a Swedish citizen.
Sweden has struggled in recent years to rein in shootings and bombings linked to conflicts between rival criminal gangs.
The perpetrators are often young teens hired as contract killers because they are under 15, the age of criminal responsibility in Sweden.
Violence linked to Swedish gangs has also been reported in both neighbouring Norway and Denmark.
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