Norwegian teenager jailed for 20 years over plot to carry out UK contract killing
Johannes Natland, 19, from Norway, was found guilty at a London court of conspiracy to murder on behalf of an organised crime group. He was sentenced to 20 years' detention.
A 19-year-old Norwegian, Johannes Natland, has been sentenced to 20 years' detention at Woolwich Crown Court in London after travelling to the UK to carry out a contract killing for an organised crime group. A jury unanimously found him guilty of conspiracy to murder, following a retrial. The sentence was handed down on Friday.
Natland was arrested in March 2025 in a hotel room in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Police found two working guns and 19 rounds of live ammunition. He had admitted possessing the firearms and ammunition.
The group behind the plot
The court heard that he was recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organised crime group described as backed by the Iranian regime. The UK and the US have both imposed sanctions on the network because of its close links to the Iranian government. Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, has called the network's practice of hiring teenage killers "violence-as-a-service" (VaaS).
Sentencing him, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the group had developed an arm's-length method of recruiting young people to commit violent crimes, and that Natland was recruited to travel to England to kill an unidentified target.
How the plan unravelled
Natland flew into Manchester Airport on an emergency passport on 17 March 2025, shortly after turning 18. Videos sent via the messaging app Signal guided him to Huddersfield, where the guns, a stolen car and a stash of cash had been hidden.
The plot was disrupted when Norwegian police arrested the teenager who had recruited him for the network and found messages about the UK plot on his phone. Investigators then raced to find Natland before he could locate his target.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said police had not been able to establish who the intended victim was. She said officers had to move quickly and intervened just before he moved towards committing the murder.
