They are called mercenaries and the practice is as old as war.
Mercenaries are professionals, though. This phenomenon is about ordinary or at least commonly criminal people.
The non/semi-professional mercenaries have to start somewhere before they get promoted to the big leagues.
Well first they need to get promoted to “assistant to the mercenary” before they become truly professional.
If they are paid they are professional and not all mercenaries are paid in coin.
TLDR: terrorism as a service. A new form of terrorism in Western countries: “disposable terrorists.” Instead of trained ideological extremists, hostile states and proxy groups recruit ordinary people online for money to carry out attacks, sabotage, or intimidation. Using encrypted apps, cryptocurrency, and criminal networks, organizers can quickly hire low-skill operatives who are easy to replace and difficult to trace. The article links this trend to Iran-backed networks and describes it as part of modern “hybrid warfare,” combining espionage, cyber tactics, propaganda, and deniable violence.
“One big question is whether it still makes sense to talk about radicalisation of a perpetrator if they are just interested in getting paid,” said Neumann.”
I would argue they are still radicalized, just by capitalism. People doing anything for money is not natural really, nor healthy.
Every country operates similar systems. The Israelis have the perfect one - honey trap operators like Epstein and Mossad assassins using fake foreign passports
Blaming encrypted messaging and cryptocurrency. Great.
Russia started this in Ukraine.
