A 19-year-old Norwegian who flew to Britain to carry out a contract killing for an Iran-linked international crime network has been jailed for 20 years. Johannes Kongsnes Natland was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday after being convicted of conspiracy to murder, in a case prosecutors said showed how organised crime groups exploit young people to commit serious violence across borders.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb handed Natland 20 years’ detention at Woolwich Crown Court on 16 October, in a hearing previewed earlier today. The sentence follows his conviction by an Old Bailey jury in July after a retrial. The plot was foiled within days of his arrival in the UK, when armed police arrested him at a hotel in Huddersfield and seized two guns and live ammunition.
The court heard that Natland had agreed to shoot an unknown target for 25,000 euros — about £21,500 — after being recruited by another teenager known as “Generalen”, who was working for the proscribed Swedish Foxtrot network. His day-to-day control came from an English-speaking handler calling himself “Agent 47”, an apparent reference to the Hitman video game and film franchise, whose true identity and whereabouts remain unknown.
Natland flew from Stavanger to Manchester Airport on a temporary passport on 17 March last year. He was stopped by Border Force officers, who bailed him to return to the airport for the next direct flight home. Instead, he travelled to Huddersfield, where armed police arrested him two days later and found a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and 12 rounds of live ammunition hidden in a plastic bag under his hotel bed.
He admitted possessing the firearms and ammunition but denied conspiracy to murder, claiming he had planned to shoot himself in the foot to escape the “pickle” he was in. Jurors rejected that account. Messages shown to the court revealed that when his girlfriend asked whether he had thought it through, he told her it would be “a bit cool to kill someone” and that if he was not caught they would have to celebrate.
Giving evidence, Natland said he had wanted to look “cool” in front of his peers but described his messages as bravado, insisting he was “terrified” inside. He told the jury his life had gone downhill after he became hooked on drugs, leading to spells in rehab and a care home, and said he had first agreed to the plan thinking it was a “joke” or a “scam”.
Under cross-examination, he accepted he had lied repeatedly in his written account of events and had never mentioned being frightened before taking the stand. He also tried to persuade his girlfriend not to give evidence in phone calls made from prison after his arrest. Prosecutor Alistair Richardson told jurors: “The reality is the defendant is a troubled but dangerous young man. A young man who agreed to kill in a foreign country for money.”
Frank Ferguson, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This was a calculated plan to kill for money. This case shows how organised crime networks operate across borders and exploit young people to carry out serious violence. Thanks to swift and coordinated police work, this plot was stopped before anyone was harmed.”
The Foxtrot network
The Foxtrot group is a Swedish criminal network led by Rawa Majid, known in Sweden as the “Kurdish Fox” and believed to be living in Iran. The network, which has been proscribed in the UK, is alleged by British authorities to have links to the Iranian state, and has become notorious in Sweden for recruiting children — some as young as 13 — into drug smuggling and violent crime.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, has said the investigation underlines the importance of close cooperation with international law enforcement partners in tackling criminal organisations operating across European borders.
A case with wider resonance
The sentencing comes at a time of heightened British concern about alleged Iranian state activity on UK soil. MI5’s director general has previously said the security service and police have disrupted 20 Iran-linked plots in Britain since 2022, and the government has summoned Iran’s ambassador in the past over alleged hostile activity. Iran has consistently denied involvement in such plots.
Counter-terrorism police have in recent years investigated a number of alleged Iran-linked conspiracies in Britain, including suspected plots targeting journalists and dissidents. Ministers have described the alleged threat as persistent, while stressing that each case is assessed on its own evidence. Natland’s case is distinct in that the alleged Iranian link runs through a European organised crime network rather than direct state agents — a distinction investigators say makes such plots harder to trace and disrupt.
What the sentence means
Because Natland is under 21, the 20-year term takes the form of detention in a young offender institution rather than imprisonment — the standard custodial sentence for offenders of his age convicted of the gravest offences. His mother has previously said she hopes he will be transferred to Norway to serve the sentence, where she believes he can be rehabilitated, return to education and re-enter society. Any transfer would be a matter for the UK and Norwegian authorities under prisoner transfer arrangements.
The length of the sentence reflects the gravity with which the court treated a conspiracy that, had it not been intercepted, could have ended in murder. Natland’s plot was foiled within days of his arrival in Britain — first by Border Force officers at Manchester Airport and then by armed police in Huddersfield — an intervention the CPS said showed the value of coordinated work between agencies.
The case is one of several serious criminal matters before London’s courts this week, including the case of a Metropolitan Police officer due in court on Monday. This is a developing story and will be updated as further details of the sentencing remarks emerge.
