A 19-year-old Norwegian man has been sentenced to 20 years’ detention for conspiring to murder an unidentified target in the UK on behalf of an organized crime group linked to Iran.
Johannes Natland was recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organized crime group described as backed by the Iranian regime, to carry out a killing in England, according to the BBC on Friday.
Natland was unanimously found guilty of conspiracy to murder during a retrial and sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday. He had previously admitted possessing firearms and ammunition.
He was arrested at the Briar Court Hotel in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in March 2025, with two working guns and 19 rounds of live ammunition hidden under his bed. He arrived at Manchester Airport on an emergency passport on March 17, 2025, shortly after his 18th birthday.
Using videos sent through the messaging app Signal, he traveled to Huddersfield, where firearms, a stolen car and cash had been concealed.
The plot was disrupted after Norwegian police arrested the teenager who had recruited Natland and discovered messages about the planned killing on his phone.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said authorities had not identified the intended victim.
“We haven’t been able to establish exactly who the intended victim was,” she said.
Sentencing Natland, Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: “You were recruited to travel to England to kill an unidentified target.”
She added: “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.”
The Foxtrot Network has been sanctioned by the UK and the US over its links to the Iranian government. The group is also associated with the recruitment of teenagers to carry out violent crimes, a practice Europol has described as “violence-as-a-service.”
Natland grew up in Stavanger, southwestern Norway, and reportedly began taking drugs at 13 before leaving school.
He later experienced drug-induced psychosis.
