A European report reveals that Iran is using criminals to attack Israelis and Jews

A European investigation has found that the Iranian regime is using criminals and drug dealers to attack Jews and Israelis in Europe.

The report is based on an investigation by Mediapart, an independent French investigative online news portal that collected and compiled documents from several European intelligence agencies. The material was then analyzed by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) and journalists from Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Denmark and Belgium. Journalist Daniel Dolev, who works for the Israeli investigative news channel, also took part in the international cooperation Shomrim.

According to the report, one case involved Roey, an Israeli citizen who lives and works in France. In late 2023, French security officials informed Roey that an Iranian-run terrorist cell was planning to kill him. French authorities said they received the important information from “a foreign intelligence agency.”

It was later revealed in a German media report that the Israeli foreign intelligence agency Mossad had alerted its French colleagues. While Mossad did not confirm this report, it reiterated that “the intelligence agencies are in constant dialogue and cooperation to deal with threats.”

The report said Roey continued to receive new warnings from French authorities, who even suggested he leave France because his life was threatened. He and his wife then decided to spend much of their time in Israel. During their stay in France they changed their place of residence six times.

French authorities eventually arrested a local Iranian-contracted cell that had plans to murder Roey and three other Israelis in France. In addition, the terrorist cell is said to have planned to kill three high-ranking officials from a Jewish community in neighboring Germany.

The European report revealed that the Ayatollah regime had no direct contact with its various criminal cells to ensure plausible deniability.

While the Iranian regime has increased its attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe since the Oct. 7 invasion and massacre in southern Israel, the report said Tehran has carefully cultivated ties with the European criminal underworld for at least a decade.

In May, Israeli intelligence revealed that the Iranian regime was using European-based criminals to carry out terrorist attacks on European soil.

“Iran operates many criminal organizations in Sweden and Europe in general, exploiting the relative advantages of each and sometimes the rivalry between them,” Israeli intelligence said specified.

The report noted that Iran prefers to rely on European-based criminal organizations led by people of Middle Eastern descent. One of these criminal organizations is FOXTROT, a Sweden-based criminal network led by Rawa Majid, an elusive Iranian-born Kurdish criminal known as the “Kurdish Fox.”

Swedish security service Säpo reported that the regime also used criminal gangs to attack Iranian dissidents across Europe.

“Iran has already used violence in other European countries to silence critical voices and perceived threats to its own regime,” assessed Säpo. “To carry out these security-threatening activities, the Iranian regime has occasionally used criminal networks,” it said.

Yoram Schweitzer, head of the “Terrorism and Low-Intensity Conflict” research program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), explained: “When it comes to exiled opposition figures, the Iranians have been running amok unhindered and for years.”

He also noted that Iran has targeted Israelis abroad.

“When it comes to Israelis, there are periods when the activity is more intense. We are currently in such a phase and have been for several years.”

A former Mossad agent told Shomrim that Iran and its main terror agent in Lebanon, Hezbollah, finance their terrorism in part through drug trafficking and ties to international drug gangs.

“Our monitoring of drug smuggling, Hezbollah’s main economic lifeline, shows that the group is connected to everything [criminal] Organizations, be it in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden or Sri Lanka. “They are on a par with the big guys,” explained the former Mossad agent.

Iran International, a Persian-English news agency that opposes the Ayatollah regime, reported this on Friday The regime had ordered criminal gangs to carry out the recent attacks on the Israeli embassies in Sweden and Denmark.