In late March, the signature "Jihadi John" ordered and coordinated three murders in three days. According to the police, a 21-year-old from southern Stockholm is behind it. He is now wanted for some 15 serious crimes.
Police officers that DN talks to describe him as a "super instigator" who climbed the hierarchy of the Foxtrot network when other leading gang members were arrested.
- Our assessment is that he is involved in a majority of the most serious cases in the last year, says a source with insight into the work against gang violence.
According to information to DN, the police suspect that the man has been involved in more murder cases than the three for which he is in custody in his absence.
One of them is the high-profile shooting death of youth leader Saba Abraham in October. The 24-year-old was murdered inside a sports hall in Älvsjö in southern Stockholm at the same time as children were playing spontaneous soccer in the room.
That the 21-year-old has been involved in planning the act is one of the police's main leads in the investigation, according to several informants.
The motive behind the murder is believed to be to exact revenge. DN has previously reported that a relative of Saba Abraham is a known gang criminal who was previously acquitted in a murder trial. The case concerned a 17-year-old boy who was kidnapped, stabbed and shot in a wooded area in the Stockholm area in 2022.
The boy and Saba Abraham's relatives belonged to two rival phalanxes after the so-called Älvsjö network's split. The 21-year-old knew the boy who was killed. When the victim's phone was found, he had eight missed calls from his friend.
- That he has exacted his revenge now that he has the ability is one of the clues. But we are still early in the investigation, says another police source.
Several people have been detained after the murder of Saba Abraham. It is about suspected shooters and helpers. At this stage, there is no suspected instigator, according to prosecutor Lukas Tigerstrand.
- We are investigating whether there are instigators and who they could be.
The investigation has progressed in the search for a possible motive, says Tigerstrand without going into any details.
The police began to notice the 21-year-old already at the end of 2022. The following year, he was sentenced to youth care for, among other things, robbery and assault. But already after four months he deviated from the accommodation where he was placed.
At the beginning of June 2024, he is captured by a surveillance camera when he gets off a train at Malmö central station. The picture is one of the last of him before he leaves the country.
Already that summer, he was detained on suspicion of crimes in Turkey, but was released. From the country, he is suspected of having directed a long series of acts of violence during the fall of 2025 and the spring of 2026.
Now, however, he is suspected of having left Turkey. The assessment is based, among other things, on information in a phone seized from one of his relatives in Sweden. In a chat, the 21-year-old sends a picture of his passport and writes what is believed to be his new haunt: the Syrian capital, Damascus.
- We search with lights and lanterns. If we catch him, a lot will be gained, says a police source.
DN has sought the 21-year-old's lawyer, who declines to comment on how he reacts to the suspicions.
