Norwegian hitman guilty of UK murder plot linked to Iran gang

A teenage Norwegian hitman has been found guilty of coming to the UK to commit murder on behalf of an international gang backed by Iran.

19-year-old footballer Johannes Kongsnes Natland agreed to kick an unknown target for 25,000 euros (£21,500) in March last year.

Two days after he arrived in the UK by plane from his home in Stavanger, armed police arrested him at a hotel in Huddersfield and seized two guns and 12 live ammunition.

Natland admitted possessing firearms and ammunition but claimed he would shoot himself in the foot to escape the “pickle” situation he was in.

But jurors heard he lied repeatedly after his arrest and even tried to persuade his girlfriend not to testify in phone calls from prison.

The Old Bailey jury deliberated for 17 hours and six minutes to find him guilty of conspiracy to murder following a retrial.

Natland’s 17-year-old recruiter, known as “Generalen”, was convicted of attempting to “contribute to murder” in Norway in May last year.

Three more people have been charged by Norwegian police because prosecutors have not yet decided whether to “charge” them.

Generalen worked for the banned Swedish Foxtrot gang, which is backed by the Iranian regime and is known for enlisting children as young as 13 in drug trafficking and violent crimes.

He recruited Natland into the plot after another member backed out.

It was controlled by an English-speaking boss named “Agent 47”, an apparent reference to the Hitman series of games and movies.

On his way to the UK, Natland heard in a group chat that Generalen had been arrested for attempted murder but continued on anyway.

Under the close direction of Agent 47, Natland flew from his home in Stavanger, Norway, to Manchester Airport on a temporary passport on March 17 last year.

He was stopped by Border Force officials in Manchester, who allowed him to return to the airport to catch the next direct flight home.

Instead, he took a taxi to Huddersfield, where he took £2,000 in cash, two guns and bullets and diverted them to a stolen Nissan with false number plates to be used in the murder.

Natland then checked into his room at the Briar Court Hotel, told his girlfriend there was an “explosion in his purse” and took a selfie with the guns and cash spread out on his bed.

On the eve of the planned attack, Agent 47 warned the defendant: “We have a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

At 5.15am the next day, armed police stormed Natland’s hotel room to arrest him.

A smiling Natland, wearing only a pair of boxer shorts, emerged and pretended to shoot one of the officers with his free hands.

When police searched his room, they seized a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver, 12 rounds of live ammunition, gloves and £2,000 in cash.

At his trial, one of Natland’s football friends recalled a conversation he had with him about the “Swedish Foxes” in which the defendant boasted: “I’ll get a lot of money and someone will die.”

Natland also sent a message to his girlfriend, saying, “I’m going on a crazy mission.”

According to him, he said: “Now I can finally kill someone and since I get paid to do it, it’s perfect. I can kill someone and life will be great.”

Asked if he had thought it through, he said: “It’ll be kind of cool to kill someone. If I don’t get caught, we should celebrate.”

Giving evidence, Natland said he wanted to look “cool” to his peers but it was just “bravado” and he was secretly “horrified”.

Natland told jurors: “I wasn’t an international assassin. I thought people had that impression and expected me to be that guy. I knew I wasn’t.”

Despite having supportive parents, he said his life took a turn for the worse after he became addicted to drugs and was placed in rehab and a halfway house.

He said he agreed to a plan to shoot someone in England in exchange for money to pay for drugs, initially thinking it was a “joke” or “scam”.

Part-time pizza restaurant worker Natland said he planned to shoot himself in the foot to get out of the situation after realizing he was in trouble with the Swedish Foxtrot gang.

He told jurors: “I was going to look like a fool but desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Faced with the alternative of being shot in the head, I thought it was better to be shot in the foot, yes.”

Under cross-examination, he acknowledged that he lied repeatedly about what happened in his written statement and that he never once mentioned being afraid before giving evidence at his trial.

Prosecutor Alistair Richardson told jurors: “The truth is that the defendant is a troubled but dangerous young man who agreed to kill in a foreign country for money.”

The true identity and whereabouts of Natland’s English-speaking controller, Agent 47, are unknown.