A jury at the Old Bailey has found Johannes Natland, a 19-year-old from Norway, guilty of conspiracy to murder. He had travelled to England to carry out a hit on behalf of an international crime gang backed by Iran, before armed police arrested him. Prosecutors described it as the first case of its kind in the UK, but part of an emerging threat spreading across Europe.
According to the case heard at court, Natland flew from his home in Norway to Manchester airport, arriving on an expired passport. Border Force initially refused him entry, but with no available flight back, he was released on bail. A gang member then directed him to a stash of cash hidden under a bridge, which he used to pay for a hotel room in Huddersfield.
Natland picked up a stash of guns and bought gloves from a supermarket to conceal his fingerprints. He then filmed himself handling the weapons on Snapchat, footage that showed an antique revolver and a semi-automatic pistol loaded with live bullets.
The court heard that Natland had been recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a group with links to the Iranian regime. Run by a man named Rawal Majid, known as the Kurdish Fox, the network is said to use teenagers to carry out arson attacks, stabbings and shootings across Europe.
The murder plot was directed by a figure known as Agent 47, believed to be Ali Shihab Ahmed, a 21-year-old arrested in Iraq last year. He asked a recruiter known as General Arlen, another teenager from the same Norwegian city as Natland, to find an assassin, with a payment of 25,000 euros on offer. General Arlen has been jailed for his role in two murders in Sweden and three attempted murders, including this one in the UK.
Natland did not know who the intended target was, but accepted the job anyway, telling his girlfriend he was going on a crazy mission. He later said he had planned to shoot himself in the foot to avoid going through with it. In the end, police swooped before he could shoot anyone.
The jury found Natland guilty of conspiracy to murder, in what has been described as the first case of its kind in Britain. His mother insisted he could never have carried out the plan, saying she knew her son could never kill anyone and that it was totally out of character for him.