Teenage Norwegian 'hitman' guilty of UK murder plot
Moment 'hitman' mimed shooting police during arrest
A teenager who travelled from Norway to the UK to carry out a "hit" for a Swedish organised crime group has been found guilty of conspiracy to murder.
An Old Bailey jury heard how Johannes Natland, 19, was arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield with two working guns and 19 rounds of live ammunition in March 2025.
He pleaded guilty to possession of the firearms and ammunition but had denied the conspiracy charge.
Following a retrial, Natland showed no emotion as the jury brought in a unanimous guilty verdict after deliberating for just over 17 hours.
During the trial opening, prosecutor Alistair Richardson said the teen was "recruited" by the Foxtrot Network, which was described as a Swedish organised crime group backed by the Iranian regime.
Natland had claimed rather than carry out the attack, he had planned to shoot himself in the foot, telling jurors he had found himself in "a major pickle".
The court heard how the Foxtrot Network had been sanctioned by both the UK and the US for its close links to the Iranian government.
The group is infamous for pioneering the relatively new phenomenon of hiring teenage killers that Europol has called "violence-as-a-service" (VaaS).
Natland flew into Manchester Airport on an emergency passport on 17 March and was guided by videos on the messaging app Signal to Huddersfield, where the guns, a stolen car and a stash of cash were hidden.
Johannes Natland was found guilty of conspiracy to murder
He was only prevented from carrying out the hit because Norwegian police arrested the teenager who had recruited him, and found messages about the UK plot in the Signal app on his phone.
There was then a race against time to find Natland before he shot his unknown target in England.
The trial heard Natland was at the Briar Court Hotel with two handguns stashed under his bed when he was arrested by police.
When he saw officers at the door, he mimed shooting one of them before he was pushed against the wall and handcuffed.
The teenager who recruited him is 17, so cannot be named for legal reasons, but was known by his online username "Generalen", or General.
Johannes Natland at Manchester Airport after being allowed to enter despite Border Force officers' suspicions
Generalen was convicted of his involvement in the conspiracy in Norway in May this year, as well as of several other attempted murders and arsons he had arranged on behalf of the Foxtrot Network.
He was also convicted for his part in two murders in Sweden.
Ahmed Zamzam was killed at Lund Central Station on 28 January last year, and Murad Abdelkader was killed in the Stockholm suburb of Alby less than a month later.
Generalen told his trial that Abdelkader was not the intended target.
He had overseen the murder, telling the gunman Atilla Azimov to shoot Abdelkader "five or six times in the back" and then in the face.
He described the operation as a success, apart from the fact that the wrong man was shot.
At his trial Generalen said his "mentor" in the Foxtrot Network was a man with the username "Agent 47".
Swedish police believe Agent 47 is Ali Shehab Ahmed, 22, who was arrested in Sulaymaniyah in Iraq in December and is awaiting extradition.
He has been described by Swedish police chiefs as a "key player" in the Foxtrot Network and "very close" to the group's leader Rawa Majid.
'Killing in England 270k'
Natland grew up in the oil city of Stavanger in south-west Norway.
The son of two journalists, and a promising young footballer, he started taking drugs aged 13.
He told the Old Bailey that by last year he was taking drugs "pretty much every day".
He dropped out of school, and after becoming paranoid that his parents were trying to kill him, he ended up in a psychiatric unit with drug-induced psychosis.
He said he then spent a short period in a "home for problem children" where he met one of those who later recruited him to the Foxtrot Network, a teenager with the username UnknownHustler.
On 15 March 2025, UnknownHustler forwarded him a message, which was in effect a Foxtrot online tender for business, known by police as VaaS.
The Foxtrot tender was blunt - "Killing in England 270k. Have transport ready out of the country. Will smuggle assassin out of the country. The police will be paid to look the other way. Nothing can go wrong." (270,000 Norwegian Kroner is about £21,000.)
Natland was then added to a group with Generalen and Agent 47. The group name was Assassin EU.
The first message he posted in the group was "Who is to be killed?"
It is not clear that he ever got the answer to that question right up to the moment he was arrested with two guns under his hotel room bed.
The next day, 16 March, Agent 47 booked Natland's one-way air ticket to the UK.
On 17 March, just two days after he had been recruited, Natland flew from Stavanger to Manchester, using the emergency passport, as his normal one had expired.
On arrival at Manchester, he was detained and questioned, as UK Border Force officers were suspicious about his emergency passport, and his lack of money, hotel booking, or return air ticket.
They refused him entry, but let him enter temporarily anyway as the next flight back to Stavanger was not for three days. The contract hit was still on.
Agent 47, and a logistics man with the username "1", then told Natland to get a taxi to Huddersfield.
A series of messages guided him to a wad of cash hidden under some rubbish near the entrance to a footpath tunnel.
He checked into the Briar Court Hotel, paying in cash, and then took another taxi to some woodland at the end of Bradley Boulevard.
There he collected a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and some ammunition.
On returning to the hotel he could not resist sending friends videos of himself handling the guns and a picture of him on the hotel bed with the cash spread out behind him, though this was just the down payment.
"We have much to do tomorrow," Agent 47 messaged him.
A bit later Natland asked "How does it work with the money?"
"Which money?" Agent 47 replied
"The payment for the job," Natland fired back.
"You will get it when the job is done," Agent 47 said. "In cash."
But by this time Generalen had been arrested by Norwegian police at Oslo airport.
On Generalen's phone they found messages about a planned "assassination" in England and they warned police in the UK.
Because of the link to the Foxtrot Network, and the network's connections to Iran, Counter Terrorism Policing got involved. It was a race to track down the gunman before he carried out his hit.
At 05:15 GMT on 19 March 2025, Natland was arrested in Room 207 at the Briar Court Hotel.
As he came out of his room he saw the green aiming dots from the firearms officers' guns on his chest, and he mimed shooting at one of them, though his guns were still under the bed. He was quickly restrained and handcuffed.
At the Old Bailey, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb ordered a report on the defendant and remanded him into custody.
He is due to be sentenced in October.
'Plot was stopped before anyone was harmed'
Frank Ferguson, head of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "This was a calculated plan to kill for money.
"Johannes Natland was just 18 when he travelled to the UK, having agreed to carry out a murder on behalf of others for financial gain.
"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 evidence in this case - including telephone evidence, text messages, CCTV footage and witness testimony - clearly left no doubt that Natland intended to carry out this crime.
"This conviction sends a clear message: if you come to this country to commit serious violence on behalf of organised criminals, you will be caught and we will make sure you are brought to justice."
29 July 2026
Norwegian teen 'hitman' jailed over UK murder plot
A teenager who travelled from Norway to the UK to carry out a "hit" for an organised crime group has been sentenced to 20 years' detention.
Johannes Natland, 19, was arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with two working guns and 19 rounds of live ammunition in March 2025, the Old Bailey previously heard.
During his retrial, a jury heard the teen was "recruited" by the Foxtrot Network, which was described as a Swedish organised crime group backed by the Iranian regime.
Natland, who had admitted to possession of the firearms and ammunition, was unanimously found guilty of conspiracy to murder and sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday.
The Foxtrot Network has been sanctioned by both the UK and the US for its close links to the Iranian government, with Natland's target remaining unclear.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: "We haven't been able to establish exactly who the intended victim was."
The Foxtrot Network is known for pioneering a relatively new phenomenon of hiring teenage killers that Europol has called "violence-as-a-service" (VaaS).
At the sentencing hearing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Natland: "The Foxtrot Network is an organised crime group which has developed an arm's-length method of recruiting young people to carry out violent crimes.
"You were recruited to travel to England to kill an unidentified target."
Natland had been offered 270,000 Norwegian Kroner, about £21,000, to carry out the killing.
He flew into Manchester Airport on an emergency passport on 17 March 2025, shortly after his 18th birthday.
Natland was guided by videos on the messaging app Signal to Huddersfield, where the guns, a stolen car and a stash of cash were hidden.
He was prevented from carrying out the hit after Norwegian police arrested the teenager who had recruited him for the Foxtrot Network and found messages about the UK plot on his phone.
There was then a race against time to find Natland before he located his unknown target in England.
Addressing Natland, the judge said: "At the heart of this case is a stark fact. You agreed to assassinate another human being, a stranger to you, in a foreign country.
"You knew nothing of that person's life or circumstances. You were just 18 years old when you placed yourself in readiness to murder for money."
Johannes Natland was found guilty of conspiracy to murder
He was told: "Although the fact that no one was shot dead or physically harmed is important, I am sure had the intervention of the police not prevented the plan from proceeding, you would have done what you had agreed to."
Natland was at the Briar Court Hotel with two handguns hidden under his bed when he was arrested by police.
When he saw officers at the door, he mimed shooting one of them with his hands before he was pushed against the wall and handcuffed.
"There was pressure because he'd come into the country, and we knew his intention was to carry out a murder on UK soil," said Flanagan.
"We had to move at pace and we intervened really quickly, and just before he sort of moved towards committing that murder."
Natland grew up in the oil city of Stavanger in south-west Norway.
Despite being a promising young footballer, he started taking drugs aged 13 and later dropped out of school.
He previously told the Old Bailey that by last year he was taking drugs "pretty much every day".
He became paranoid his parents were trying to kill him and he ended up in a psychiatric unit with drug-induced psychosis.
Johannes Natland at Manchester Airport after being allowed to enter despite Border Force officers' suspicions
Natland's barrister, Paul Hynes KC, said the "mental illness was exacerbated, if not created, by the self-induced consumption of drugs", which had "affected his ability to make rational, good decisions".
The defendant said he spent a short period in a "home for problem children" where he met one of those who later recruited him to the Foxtrot Network, a teenager with the username UnknownHustler.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Natland: "You agreed to be the enforcer and pursued it, despite numerous opportunities to extricate yourself."
Within two days of being recruited, Natland flew from Stavanger to Manchester, using the emergency passport as his normal one had expired.
He was stopped by Border Force officials in Manchester and was told to return to the airport to catch the next direct flight home.
Instead, he took a taxi to the hotel in Huddersfield before taking another taxi to a wooded area.
He picked up £2,000 in cash, two guns and bullets, and was directed to a stolen Nissan with false plates to be used in the killing.
The judge added at sentencing: "You returned to the hotel with two guns and 19 bullets.
"You were sent directions to where a stolen car bearing false number plates was parked with its key, after which you bought rubber gloves, took photos and made videos of what you had acquired, including with the money spread out on the hotel bed."
From his hotel room, Natland bragged to his girlfriend he had the "bangs in the bag" and took selfies in his room.
Johannes Natland, pictured with cash on his bed at the Briar Court Hotel in Huddersfield
At his trial, one of Natland's footballer friends recalled him talking about the "Swedish Foxes" and telling him: "I'm going to get a lot of money and somebody is going to die."
Natland also confided in his girlfriend before leaving for the UK, saying in a message: "I'm going on crazy mission."
According to her, he said: "Now I can finally kill someone and it's perfect as I get money to do it.
"I can kill someone and life will be wonderful."
Giving evidence, Natland said he wanted to look "cool" to his peers but it was just "bravado" and inside he was "terrified".
He told jurors: "I wasn't an international assassin. I thought people had this impression and expected me to be this guy. I knew I wasn't."
Natland admitted possessing the firearms and ammunition but claimed he would have shot himself in the foot to get out of the "pickle" he was in.
Flanagan said: "Natland was clearly being tasked by someone in the Foxtrot Network, an organised criminal group sanctioned by the UK and the US due to its involvement in orchestrating violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime.
"The intended target of this specific assassination has never been identified, and we found no evidence of any direct link to Iran in this case.
"However, as recent events have shown, Counter Terrorism Policing will seek to proactively disrupt any attempts by hostile states to carry out criminal acts in the UK."
'Very severe sentence'
Natland was told he will have to serve at least two thirds of the 20-year sentence behind bars.
The Norwegian lawyers acting for the 19-year-old said they would work to have him transferred to Norway to serve his sentence.
"Twenty years is a very severe sentence for a boy who was 18 when he was arrested," they said in a statement.
"The other young people convicted in the related proceedings in Norway mainly received youth sentences or community sentences.
"We will take the time to consider the sentence carefully, together with him, his family and his British legal team."
Counter Terrorism Policing said it continued to investigate those suspected of helping Natland obtain firearms and a stolen car.
In September 2025, a 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and was later released under investigation.
Two men, aged 30 and 27, were arrested in Bradford on 20 May on suspicion of handling stolen goods, specifically a car.
They were taken into custody before being released on bail.
By Daniel Sandford
UK correspondent
16 October 2026
Original article HERE
