LONDON, Oct 16 (Reuters) – A Norwegian teenager who flew to Britain to commit murder after being recruited online by a Swedish organised crime group linked to Iran was jailed on Friday for 20 years.
British prosecutors said Johannes Natland, now 19, was recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish criminal group that pays young people to carry out “violence as a service” on behalf of clients, including the Iranian state.
He was convicted in July of conspiracy to murder. Natland had not been told the identity of the person he had agreed to kill in return for a payment of 270,000 Norwegian kroner, around $28,600, prosecutors said.
The case was one of a number in recent years involving young adults who have stood trial in Britain over serious criminal acts carried out after being recruited online. Britain says some of them have ended up acting as unwitting proxies for foreign states such as Iran or Russia.
Foxtrot has been linked to several murders across Europe, and Britain and the US allege the group was behind attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets on behalf of Iran, which denies the allegation.
TEEN SAID ‘IT WILL BE COOL TO KILL’
Natland had only just turned 18 when he flew from Norway to Britain, having responded to an advert which offered money to kill and said “nothing can go wrong”.
He admitted possessing a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and ammunition, but denied conspiracy to murder, saying he did not intend to carry out the plan and had considered shooting himself in the foot to get out of it.
But prosecutors said Natland was an enthusiastic recruit, who boasted to a friend that “it will be cool to kill someone”.
Natland was sentenced at London’s Woolwich Crown Court to detention for 20 years by Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, who said she was sure he would have carried out the murder if he had not been arrested by police.
“This was not an impulsive act lasting a few moments … your conduct demonstrated purpose and persistence,” she said, adding that Natland would serve at least 13 years in custody.
Natland’s Norwegian lawyer Farid Bouras said in a statement: “Our priority now is to bring him home. We will be working to secure his transfer to Norway as quickly as we possibly can.”
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said there was no evidence of any direct link to Iran in Natland’s case, which served as a warning to those who may be recruited to become criminal proxies.
“As Natland found, the people orchestrating these crimes will not protect you from the consequences,” she said.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; additional reporting by Terje Solsvik in OsloEditing by Sarah Young and Peter Graff)
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