A Norwegian teenager who flew to England with two loaded handguns to murder a stranger for money has been jailed for 20 years, capping a counter-terrorism investigation into the Foxtrot Network's use of teenage gunmen across Europe.
Johannes Natland, 19, was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday after a jury unanimously convicted him of conspiracy to murder. He had already admitted possessing firearms and ammunition when police stormed his room at the Briar Court Hotel in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in March 2025. Officers found two working guns and 19 live rounds hidden under the bed — hours before prosecutors say he planned to strike.
Violence rented by message
Prosecutors and police described the Foxtrot Network as a Swedish organised crime group sanctioned by Britain and the United States for links to violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe. Europol has labelled the hiring model "violence-as-a-service": recruiters groom teenagers online, pay them in cryptocurrency or cash, and keep planners at arm's length.
Natland was offered about 270,000 Norwegian kroner, roughly £21,000, to carry out the killing, the court heard. He travelled on an emergency passport from Stavanger to Manchester Airport on 17 March 2025, days after his 18th birthday. Border Force staff stopped him and told him to take the next flight home; instead he took taxis to Huddersfield, collected £2,000, the weapons and directions to a stolen Nissan with false plates, and returned to the hotel.
Race to stop a shooting
The plot unravelled when Norwegian police arrested the teenager who had recruited Natland and found Signal messages about the UK operation. British investigators then had to locate Natland before he identified his target — a person whose identity has never been confirmed.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said officers "moved at pace" because they believed Natland intended to commit murder on UK soil. Video played at trial showed Natland miming shooting an officer when police entered his room; he was pushed against a wall and handcuffed. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told him that without police intervention, "you would have done what you had agreed to."
Bravado and psychosis
Natland grew up in Stavanger and was once a promising footballer, but the court heard he began using drugs at 13, left school and later experienced drug-induced psychosis. He messaged his girlfriend that he was on a "crazy mission" and boasted he had "bangs in the bag," sending selfies with cash spread on the hotel bed.
At trial he claimed the talk was bravado and that he would have shot himself in the foot rather than kill anyone. The judge rejected that account, noting he had "numerous opportunities to extricate yourself" yet pursued the plan. His barrister, Paul Hynes KC, said mental illness was worsened by drug use, affecting his decision-making.
Sentence and unfinished lines of inquiry
Natland must serve at least two thirds of the 20-year term in custody. His Norwegian lawyers said they would seek a transfer to serve the sentence in Norway, calling the term "very severe" for someone who was 18 at arrest.
Flanagan said investigators never established exactly who was meant to die. Counter Terrorism Policing said it found no direct evidence tying this plot to Iran, despite the Foxtrot Network's broader sanctions history, but vowed to disrupt any hostile-state recruitment on British soil. Separate inquiries continue into people suspected of supplying the guns and stolen car; a 27-year-old man was arrested in September 2025 on suspicion of conspiracy to murder and released under investigation.
For UK authorities, the case is both a near-miss and a warning: a teenager with no prior connection to his victim nearly carried out a paid assassination because organised crime groups have learned to shop for willing gunmen abroad.