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On the evening of August 10, a person using the handle “Sponge Jobb” posted a call for a hitman to a group on the Signal messaging app.
The group member, who used an avatar of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants, said weapons and transport were available. The person ultimately offered $60,000 in cryptocurrency for the murder.
Days after the advertisement for a contract killer appeared, a Danish man answered. But the would-be hitman was actually an undercover officer. His work triggered an international police operation leading to an attempted murder case now unfolding in Cyprus, where the hit was allegedly intended to take place.
Those are some of the details gathered by OCCRP member center CIReN from the Cypriot court, where authorities have submitted information from their investigation into the alleged murder plot.
Many questions remain, and authorities are keeping tight-lipped as the investigation is ongoing. The targets were described in the Cyprus court only as twin brothers vacationing on the island. The possible motive for their murder has not been revealed.
The brothers left Cyprus as the plot was unfolding, and authorities are now searching for them with the help of Interpol, the international policing agency.
Eight alleged participants of the plot have been arrested, including an Irish national, two Norwegians and five Swedes. OCCRP’s media partners in Norway and Sweden have found information about the criminal histories of some of the suspects.
The five Swedes were already known to authorities, according to Teodor Smedius, Superintendent at the Swedish Police Authority’s National Operations Department.
“This is a fairly typical violence-as-a-service setup,” he told Sweden’s SVT.
Smedius declined to comment on where the order for the murder may have originated, but said: “It is absolutely clear that our domestic criminal networks cooperate with other organised criminal networks across Europe.”
The two Norwegians had criminal convictions in their home country, according to court records obtained by Norway’s VG.
One man was convicted of assault and fraud, and was sentenced to a year and five months in prison, records show. The other man’s history includes a five-month sentence for storing narcotics. The Norwegian records show no indication that the sentences were appealed.
Alexandros Clerides, the lawyer appointed in Cyprus to defend one of the Norwegians, said his client “categorically denies any involvement in, or connection with, the matters being investigated by the Cypriot police.”
“My client was in Cyprus on holiday,” Clerides told VG.
Omar Tashakori, the attorney for the other Norwegian suspect, said he had no comment on the case.
After the arrest of two Norwegians and an Irish national, the international police operation netted five Swedes. Reporters were not able to reach their lawyer for the Swedes or the Irish citizen before publication.
In court in Cyprus, the two Norwegian suspects exercised their right to silence.
According to information from Interpol’s Ireland office, which has been brought forward in Cypriot court, the Irish suspect has no criminal history and is known to police in his home country only for traffic offences.
The Irish suspect testified that he was not involved in any murder plot, and had been on vacation in Cyprus where he met one of the Norwegians and began hanging out with him. He said the Norwegian had paid him 200 euros to deliver an envelope containing 1,000 euros to a location in the Cypriot resort town of Ayia Napa. He stated that the Norwegian had told him he owed the money to a friend.
But that payment was allegedly intended for the contract killer, according to information that has emerged in court.
The Danish undercover officer posing as the hitman collected the money from a cardboard box behind rubbish bins near Ayia Napa Primary School, while two alleged participants in the plot watched from nearby.
By then, he had also been provided with images of his targets. Two photographs were sent to his phone: the twins he was allegedly hired to kill.
The weapons were supposed to come next. The Danish officer was discussing with a Signal contact the delivery of two pistols and magazines, allegedly brought in from Turkey.
But before the weapons could reach the undercover officer, the twins left Cyprus. With the alleged targets gone, police moved against the men they had been watching.
