Teen Hitman Jailed 20 Years Over UK Assassination Plot

Norwegian national Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, has been sentenced to 20 years in custody after being convicted of conspiracy to murder over a planned assassination in the United Kingdom.

A court ordered that he serve at least 13 years before becoming eligible for release.

British Counter Terrorism Police say Natland travelled from Norway to England after being recruited for a paid killing.

The proposed payment was €25,000.

Investigators said he received instructions from a person using the online name “Agent 47”, including travel directions and information showing him how to collect weapons hidden in Huddersfield.

Natland travelled to a wooded location where investigators say he retrieved firearms.

Police later arrested him in a hotel room, recovering a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and ammunition.

He had arrived in Britain only two days earlier.

Prosecutors said intervention by British and Norwegian law-enforcement agencies prevented the planned killing only hours before it was expected to occur.

Natland admitted firearm and ammunition offences but denied that he genuinely intended to carry out the assassination.

At trial, he claimed he intended to avoid the killing. The jury rejected his account and convicted him of conspiracy to murder.

Investigators linked his instructions to the Foxtrot Network, a Sweden-based organised-crime group sanctioned by Britain and the United States over its wider involvement in violent activity.

Counter Terrorism Policing stressed an important distinction: although authorities have associated the wider Foxtrot network with attacks carried out on behalf of Iran against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe, investigators said they found no direct evidence that Iran was involved in this particular assassination plot, and the intended victim has never been publicly identified.

The case demonstrates a growing law-enforcement concern sometimes described as crime or violence “as a service”: sophisticated actors recruiting people online to undertake violent operations while those directing the crime remain physically distant from the scene.

Police say investigations into others suspected of helping Natland obtain the weapons and a vehicle remain ongoing. Counter Terrorism Policing