Norwegian teen given kill mission in UK by Iranian-linked criminal group

A Norwegian man, 19, was sentenced in London on Friday to 20 years in prison on an attempted murder charge, with his target possibly being Jewish or Israeli figures in the United Kingdom, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The judges found Johannes Kongsnes Natland guilty of conspiracy to murder, although an established target was never identified during trial, police said.

“Natland was clearly being tasked by someone in the Foxtrot Network, an organised criminal group sanctioned by the U.K. and the U.S. due to its involvement in orchestrating violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime,” said Commander Helen Flanagan, head of the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) London.

The defendant was arrested hours before carrying out the assassination, according to Flanagan.

Local authorities arrested him at a hotel in the early hours of March 19, 2025, after he arrived at Manchester Airport two days earlier, the Met Police continued.

Police located a bag under his bed containing two firearms—a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver—and 19 bullets.

Natland mimed shooting one of the officers with his hands before he was subdued and handcuffed, according to the BBC.

“There was pressure because he’d come into the country, and we knew his intention was to carry out a murder on U.K. soil,” the BBC quoted Flanagan as saying.

“We had to move at pace and we intervened really quickly, and just before he sort of moved towards committing that murder,” he added.

According to the investigation, upon arriving in Britain, Natland took a taxi to a wooded area of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, where he had picked up the firearms.

The offender received instructions on his phone from username “Agent 47” on the firearms’ whereabouts. After obtaining the firearms and some cash, his handler told him where to reserve a hotel room, the Met Police said.

Analysis of Natland’s digital communications revealed he was recruited to the mission while in Norway via social media, in exchange for €25,000 (about $28,000).

Natland will serve a minimum of 13 years.

“One of the tactics increasingly used by foreign states seeking to cause harm to the U.K. is the use of criminal proxies,” the police quoted Flanagan as saying.

“They often recruit people online with promises of significant financial reward. But the reality is that those carrying out these tasks are viewed as disposable assets by those directing them. They are used when convenient and abandoned when circumstances change. As Natland found, the people orchestrating these crimes will not protect you from the consequences. Instead, you are left facing arrest, prosecution and a substantial prison sentence,” the commander stressed.

Iran’s comprehensive ‘target catalog’

Last year, a European investigation uncovered how the Iranian regime offered a compelling proposition to Rawa Majid, leader of Sweden’s Foxtrot crime organization.

The deal included protection, refuge and unrestricted movement in Tehran without risk of extradition. The exchange required Majid to deploy his criminal network against Israeli targets, executing kidnappings and murders of Israelis across Europe.

Majid, known as the “Kurdish Fox,” is a 38-year-old Iranian-born Kurdish-Swedish criminal.

Swedish public television SVT‘s investigation documents show the terrorist campaign began materializing in early 2024.

Investigation findings indicate a comprehensive “target catalog” that Iran provided to Foxtrot encompassing Israeli embassy attacks, defense contractor strikes, Israeli citizen kidnappings and assassinations, and assaults on Jewish community facilities and synagogues throughout Europe.

“They deploy us as pawns in their strategic game,” one operative explained. “Their operations can surface anywhere across the continent—provided Israel remains the target.”