Inside the Surge of the Gen Z Mafia: Paying Teens £160 to Commit Murders in Tourist Hotspots—No Rules and a Disturbing New Strategy

FROM gunning down civilians in the street to planting car bombs, a deadly new class of teenage gangsters are terrorising Europe, ripping up the traditional mafia ‘rulebook’ to commit acts of unspeakable violence.

Welcome to Daltons Mafia – a brutal syndicate originating in Turkey and ruled by 29-year-old Berat Can Gökdemir – who are now targeting tourist hotspots, including Spain and France.

The Gen Z mobsters started their criminal life in the suburbs of Istanbul, according to reports Credit: Getty Berlin is being terrorised by gangs of gun-toting youths Credit: YouTube/WELT

Armed with AK47s and explosives, the brazen gangsters revel in murder sprees and traffic heroin and cocaine – all while flaunting their sick exploits across TikTok and Instagram.

Impoverished teen drug mules and hitmen have no fear of the police – and regard prison time as a glorious networking opportunity.

“They don’t use any rules,” mafia investigator Osman Çaklı told The Sun, adding that “their main aim is to destroy everything”.

The Daltons – named after a bumbling gang of comic book villains – began as a collection of child gangs committing petty theft in the suburbs of Istanbul, Turkey, according to reports.

But in the last two years, the Gen Z mafia have exploded in the German capital of Berlin and are infiltrating southern France, Italy and Spain.

Chilling videos posted online show attacks on shop owners or wads of cash from drug deals – with some clips even filmed inside prison cells.

“Thousands of videos [are] filmed from inside cells”, sociologist Marcello Ravveduto told The Sun, adding that inmates dance to music and “show off life behind bars as if it were a reality show”.

Online mafia clips overlap with the manosphere because they “share a dominant masculinity”, explained Ravveduto.

Ringleader Berat Can Gökdemir has been handed multiple life sentences Credit: Instagram/candaltobcg34 Cops smashing the door in of a mafia safehouse in Turkey Credit: Getty

“In both we find the cult of virility, money as the measure of worth, redemption through force, a hierarchy that rewards whoever dominates.”

Germany has rarely been under the boot of mafiosos – unlike their neighbours in Italy and Eastern Europe.

But Berlin is now facing “an unprecedented surge in lawlessness” said a new report from the Global Initiative against Transnational Crime.

Gun crime has spiked – doubling from 2024 to 2025 – and since January there have been nine shootings on people or property.

New Gen Z mobsters are more violent than traditional mafias, according to Turkish journalist and investigator Osman Çaklı.

“Normally underground life has its own rules, the traditional mafia maybe kidnaps the [shop] owner, hits them, maybe shoots them in the foot”, he said.

“But when it comes to them [the Gen Z mafia] they don’t use any rules.

“Let’s say it’s a bar or a pub – they walk in and they can kill everyone in the pub. Their main aim is to destroy everything.”

Packages of heroin smuggled by the Gen Z mafia and seized by police Credit: Getty Turkish police cracking down on organised crime in Istanbul Credit: Getty

Where once the mafia used single-shot firearms, the Daltons “use AK47s and explosives”.

More than 5,000 kids dealing drugs for different Gen Z mafias have been locked up in Turkish prisons in the last three to four years, said Osman.

Many are seduced into the mafia online – and transformed into disposable gunmen.

“There is no training”, said Osman, adding: “They just find one person online and put money in his pocket and send them to kill their target.”

Teen mobsters are killing for a pittance – paid just £160 (10,000 Turkish liras) for murder, rising to £1,600 (100,000 Turkish liras) for high profile assassinations.

Chillingly, Osman added that recruits “are learning by doing”.

Describing their crimes, he said: “They go to one store and they say ‘if you want to continue your business you must pay out.’ If shop owners refuse, they start to show unseen violence against them.

“It is something new in Turkish mafia-style”, he added.

Police in Berlin during a raid Credit: YouTube/RBB Police officer swabs bullet shots in a Berlin shop window Credit: YouTube/RBB

Some members are just 15 years old, with many lured in by the promise of wealth and luxury plastered across the digital mafiosphere.

Disturbing videos show violent extortions – or boast luxury cars and designer watches over a backing track of melodic trap music.

Flagrant displays of criminality across TikTok and Instagram have outraged older mafia bosses – who regard the videos as reckless and stupid.

Osman explained that older mafioso committed their crimes “in a very hidden way and nobody used to know what was going on”.

Gen Z mafia on the other hand “intentionally show everything that is going on – they put videos on social media”.

Ravveduto said “the tension is real” between old-school mafia bosses and the younger mafiosos.

He said: “The old guard built its power on the myth of silence.

“A boss who shows himself is a boss who exposes himself, and whoever exposes himself becomes fragile in front of investigators and rivals. From that point of view, the showing-off on TikTok looks like recklessness, almost vulgarity.”

Chilling photos posted to Instagram show youths in sweatpants and trainers firing guns Credit: Instagram/guneydogutv_tv One juvenile thug with what appears to be an AK-47 in a social media post Credit: YouTube/RBB

Osman points out that the Daltons Mafia is built up of children who grew up surrounded by poverty and crime – and have no fear of being arrested.

He said: “For normal people like us it is, of course, frightening to be caught by police, but for them its a risk worth taking.

“They go to prison and gain new networks in the prison – the benefit is more than the harms.”

Ravveduto agreed, adding “prison is the university of the underworld” and considered a rite of passage for child delinquents.

Thousands of child criminals have been arrested in Turkey after trafficking Class A drugs and shooting dead shopkeepers who fail to do their bidding.

Police in Germany have also been scrambling to crack down on the rise in shootings, extortion and violence – seen especially in Berlin but also across Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Cologne and Hamburg.

In November 2025, the Berlin police launched a new Iron Taskforce in February this year they added another called “Telum” – meaning weapons – to battle the spike in gun trafficking.

German investigators trying to crack down on the lawless teens have found themselves on disturbing “death lists” with bounties placed on their heads, reported newspaper Bild .

Berlin’s ‘Iron Force’ uncovering two handguns belonging to the mafia Credit: YouTube/RBB Turf wars between rival mafia gangs rage across Germany’s capital Credit: YouTube/RBB

Cops have so far failed to arrest any members of the Daltons Mafia, according to one Berlin-based member who spoke to Osman.

Osman trawled through court documents from June and confirmed that the names of those arrested were not those of the Gen Z mafia.

The Berlin police force declined to comment.

Turkey has spawned three main Gen Z mafia syndicates – of which the biggest are The Daltons.

The other two are the Casper Mafia – also named after a cartoon character – and the Çirkinler which translates to “The Uglies”.

The three gangs engage in bitter turf wars on the streets of Germany with The Uglies and the Caspers both gunning at rivals The Daltons.

But all three are ruthlessly expanding their territory with The Daltons snaking into Marseille, southern France.

The Casper Mafia and the The Uglies meanwhile are establishing a presence in Spain, Italy and Georgia.

But German police are cracking down on the lawlessness.

One suspected thug, 21, who punched a businessman in the face alongside three masked accomplices, was charged in June.

And Berlin’s Iron Taskforce is currently handling 126 cases involving gun trafficking and violent extortion, according to German newspaper Tages Spiegel – though it is unclear whether suspects are members of The Daltons.