Foreign governments are “turning to ordinary citizens as agents”
A senior Dutch police official has told Politico that foreign governments are increasingly recruiting “ordinary Europeans” for spying and sabotage.
Youssef Ait Daoud is director of intelligence and national threats at the Netherlands’ National Investigations and Special Operations Unit, a police division set up two years ago. He told he news website this shift means the authorities are now trying to catch ordinary citizens recruited online for money rather than “professional” operatives.
“It’s not as if there’s a note saying, ‘Greetings from Russia’ or ‘Greetings from Iran,’” Ait Daoud told the website. “Sometimes it’s simply: ‘Do you want to set fire to something for €5,000?’”
Ait Daoud’s comments came just days after justice minister David van Weel said the four teenagers arrested in connection with a small explosion outside a synagogue in Rotterdam had probably been recruited for the job, possibly by Iran.
Last September, Ait Daoud’s team was involved in the arrest of two 17-year-olds in connection with what the public prosecution service said was a Russian-directed plot.
Internet traffic
The teenagers are suspected of trying to map internet traffic around key sites in The Hague using a device known as a “Wi-Fi sniffer” on behalf of a Russian hacker group.
Dutch security agencies, including the counter-terrorism unit NCTV, have repeatedly warned of growing digital espionage and the increasingly assertive role played by other state actors.
Although that was the first case of its kind to come to light in the Netherlands, in Germany the government has gone as far as to start a campaign warning youngsters not to become a “disposable agent.”
The police told broadcaster NOS that the interview had been given to Politico before the synagogue attack and that they did not wish to comment on its contents.
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