The explosion on Saturday night at a house on Voorstenkamp in Nijmegen was probably aimed at a cousin of the fugitive Iraqi-Kurdish drug trafficker Rawa Majid (37), who is wanted in Sweden for serious crimes. A well-informed source reports this to Crimesite.
By Roel Janssen / Image: Heitink Press Agency
“Kurdish Fox”
The explosion is said to have occurred at a cousin of Rawa Majid, also known as the “Kurdish Fox”, leader of the Swedish criminal organization Foxtrot, which is linked to numerous shootings and bombings in Sweden. This cousin was said to have been born in the Netherlands and to have Kurdish parents. He has lived in Nijmegen since at least 2014.
A reliable source tells Crimesite that this cousin has spent considerable time with Rawa Majid and his closest allies in Istanbul. Majib recently spent a while in the Maslak district (Istanbul) and his cousin posted a photo of it on social media. This cousin can also be seen in a photo where he is sitting on a couch with a black hood over his head and wearing a gold ring of a fox. A gift from the “Kurdish Fox” to his inner circle.
Explosion
The explosion at a house on 10e street of the Voorstenkamp in Nijmegen took place on Saturday night around 1.25 am. Heavy fireworks shattered the front door and window of the house. The residents were home at the time of the explosion, but because they were not on the ground floor, no one was injured.
Nothing is yet known about a motive for the explosion. According to sources, Majid’s cousin is said to have helped traffic drugs for his criminal network Foxtrot. He is also said to have insulted a rival group online. An act of revenge against a family member of Rawa Majib could also be a scenario.
Unprecedented acts of revenge
The leader of the Foxtrot gang Rawa Majid had a falling out with his former right-hand man Ismail Abdo (33), alias “Strawberry”, in 2023 when a large drug transport went wrong. According to Swedish media, the criminal networks originally fought over drugs and weapons, but since September 2023 there have been unprecedented revenge attacks, with family members also being targeted. During all the explosions and shootings that month, as many as eleven people died in Sweden, including innocent victims. Most of the deaths are related to the conflict within the Foxtrot gang. In just twelve hours, two shootings and an explosion in Stockholm and Uppsala resulted in three fatalities.
Bandidos
The now sworn enemies Rawa Majid and Ismail Abdo would direct their men and soldiers from Turkey. In Sweden, the Foxtrot gang has been in conflict with motorcycle club Bandidos since March 2022. Attacks followed on both sides, resulting in the deaths of two innocent victims. Major problems also arose with the Vårby network and the Dalen network.
Gang war
Crime journalist Kim Malmgren from the Swedish newspaper Expressen tells Crimesite that the current gang war broke out in September 2023 when the top of the Foxtrot gang split into two parts. ‘It apparently started with a shooting in an apartment in Istanbul, followed closely by a public revenge shooting in a cafe in the same city. A few days later, Rawa Majid survived an assassination plot in Alanya. Almost at the same time, the mother of his main rival Ismail Abdo was murdered in her home in Sweden. A 58-year-old woman who had no part in her son’s crimes. That caused the most violent gang war we have seen in Sweden.”
Family members
According to Malmgren, all the big boys are in hiding abroad, but that also has a downside. “Instead, their families were targeted. Men, women, children, it doesn’t matter. Many of them have no ties to crime. Within a few months we had several dozen violent incidents: shootings, bombings, arsons. A few months ago the weather started to cool down in Sweden. Most relatives of those involved have received police protection or have left the country for their safety. Instead, the gang war has become international. In addition to a number of murders in Sweden, there have been shootings and bombings in Turkey, Bosnia, Iraq and Norway.’
8.5 years in prison
Majid was born in Iran in 1986 to Iraqi-Kurdish parents and grew up in the Swedish student city of Uppsala, 70 kilometers from the capital Stockholm. In 2010 he was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for various drug offenses. This included trading cocaine that he imported from the Netherlands. In 2015, he was released on parole and bought his own ice cream parlor in Uppsala to launder money. Three months later he is imprisoned again for violating his conditions. In 2018, he is once again a free man, but is not allowed to leave Sweden. Shortly afterwards, his cousin is liquidated and Rawa Majid realizes that he is in danger. He is subsequently allowed to travel to Iraq, despite being under supervision and parole. There he picks up the drug trafficking thread again.
Pgp messages
In 2020, the investigative services succeeded in decrypting PGP messages from Majib, which, according to the Swedish police, showed that they were dealing with a very large fish. The “Kurdish Fox” is seen as the leader of the Foxtrot gang. The hard core of the group would mainly consist of family members and close friends of Majid. The core members can be recognized by their gold Fox rings and chains. The network is said to be mainly concerned with bringing in large quantities of drugs. The group is also notorious for not shying away from the use of extreme violence.
Turkish citizenship
Swedish police, working with Iraqi police, tried to capture him in November 2021, but the fox had already fled after probably being tipped off about the impending raid. After this, Majib moved to Turkey. In 2020, he bought Turkish citizenship through a so-called ‘golden visa scheme’. With this, Turkey offers citizenship for 400,000 dollars, in order to make sufficient business investments in the country.
Despite arrest warrants from Interpol and Sweden, where he is one of the most wanted criminals, Turkey refuses to arrest or extradite Rawa Majib because of his citizenship. Turkey and Sweden do not have an extradition treaty and Turkey does not extradite its nationals to other countries. Majid is believed to be protected by senior figures within the police and government.
Half brother
Majib is also said to have a half-brother in the Netherlands. He was reportedly arrested in an apartment in The Hague in autumn 2023 after a European arrest warrant was issued for him by Swedish authorities. More about that in a next article.
From the 6.30 minute mark an item can be seen on the Swedish TV channel STV1 about the explosion in the Netherlands at the home of Rawa Majid’s cousin.
