A 19-year-old Norwegian footballer has been jailed for 20 years after agreeing to kill a target in the UK for €25,000 (£21,500) on behalf of an Iran-backed crime syndicate.
Johannes Kongsnes Natland, a talented sportsman from Stavanger, flew into Manchester in March last year with a temporary passport. Two days later, armed police raided a hotel in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, where they found him in possession of a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver, 12 rounds of live ammunition, and gloves. He was charged with conspiracy to murder.
Recruited by ‘Generalen’
Court records reveal Natland was groomed by another teenager known as ‘Generalen’, who works for the proscribed Swedish Foxtrot gang. The group is linked to the Iranian regime and has a documented history of recruiting children as young as 13 for drug smuggling and violent crimes. Natland was directly controlled by an English-speaking boss codenamed ‘Agent 47’, a nod to the popular Hitman video game franchise. The identity and current location of Agent 47 remain unknown to investigators.
Bravado before arrest
Natland’s arrest was swift. After being stopped by Border Force at Manchester airport and bailed to catch a flight home, he instead took a taxi to Huddersfield. He checked into the Briar Court hotel, picked up the weapons and £2,000 in cash, and was directed to a stolen Nissan with false number plates intended for the assassination. Before police arrived at 5:15 am, Natland reportedly took selfies with the guns and cash spread out on his bed. He even messaged his girlfriend, bragging that he had the ‘bangs in the bag’.
“I wasn’t an international assassin,” Natland told jurors during his trial. “I thought people had this impression and expected me to be this guy. I knew I wasn’t.”
Excitement, not just participation
Defence lawyer Paul Hynes KC argued that Natland was a ‘young, popular, successful student’ who had ‘gone off the rails’ due to drug addiction. He claimed his client intended to shoot himself in the foot to escape the situation. However, the judge rejected this narrative. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, sentencing at Woolwich Crown Court, noted that text messages showed ‘not only participation but at points excitement’ about the plan.
“You agreed to be the enforcer and pursued it, despite numerous opportunities to extricate yourself,” the judge said. She concluded that without police intervention, Natland would have carried out the killing.
The case highlights the growing reach of transnational gangs into Western Europe, using social media and financial incentives to recruit vulnerable youth. While Natland is now behind bars, the network that recruited him remains at large. Authorities are continuing to investigate the broader operations of the Foxtrot gang and its Iranian backers, aiming to dismantle the infrastructure that allowed a teenager to be turned into a weapon.
Source: Guardian World
This article was compiled by the IndiaBBCNews editorial system from verified international news sources. Facts have been independently reviewed. Original reporting: Guardian World.
