The National Security Council already warned in August of an increase in violence linked to organized crime, particularly score-settling. Police and prosecutorial sources anticipate that the 2025 Prosecutor's Report will confirm this rise, as contract crimes have jumped from about twenty annually before 2020 to more than 50 or 60 confirmed cases last year.
In 2025 there were more than fifty cases: 50 or 60. Crimes that often go unreported. If we count both consummated and frustrated attempts, we could be talking about a hundred.
The profile of the hitman is also changing. Although the Latin American model who travels for an express execution persists, the phenomenon of the so-called 'Swedish scooter riders' has emerged. These are minors, recruited by the Dutch Mocro Maffia via social media, who are sent to Spain to carry out executions, often using scooters for movement.
The main motives are debt collection, drug 'flipping' (stolen shipments), and wars between international clans, such as the Serbian Kavac and Skaljar, which used Barcelona as a battleground last summer. This high competition has led to a drastic drop in prices: while contracts used to cost 50,000 euros, an execution can now be secured for as little as 1,700 euros.
These operations are often managed through so-called 'collection offices,' branches of large Latin American groups or Eastern European mafias, established mainly in major cities like Madrid and Barcelona. This phenomenon is growing in Spain because it is a gateway for drugs, a comfortable refuge, and due to more lenient criminal legislation compared to countries like Colombia or Morocco.
