Norwegian teen sentenced to 20 years in prison for plotting murder in UK for Iran-linked gang

LONDON (AP) — A Norwegian teenager convicted of traveling to Britain to carry out a contract killing on behalf of an international crime gang linked to Iran was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.

Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, was found guilty in July of conspiracy to murder for agreeing to shoot an unknown target for 25,000 euros (21,500 pounds or $28,000) last year.

He was arrested at a hotel in Huddersfield in northern England with two guns and ammunition two days after arriving in the U.K. Natland admitted to possessing the firearms and ammunition, but said that he didn't want to go through with the plan.

Natland, who was working part time at a pizza restaurant at the time of his arrest, was recruited by a Swedish organized crime group known as the Foxtrot Network while he was playing a game online. The group has links to the Iranian government, according to counterterrorism officers from London’s Metropolitan Police.

“You agreed to be the enforcer and pursued it, despite numerous opportunities to extricate yourself,” Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said at his sentencing hearing at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London.

“Although the fact that no one was shot dead or physically harmed is important, I am sure had the intervention of the police not prevented the plan from proceeding, you would have done what you had agreed to.”

Natland was hired by a 17-year-old known as “Generalen.” A court in Norway convicted the teenager last year of attempting to “contribute to murder” and sentenced him to 14 years in custody. Three more people have been charged by Norwegian police, with a decision yet to be made by prosecutors whether to indict them.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, credited the “exceptional work” of British police working with Norwegian counterparts for Natland’s arrest hours before he was due to carry out an assassination.

“Natland was clearly being tasked by someone in the Foxtrot Network, an organized 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,” she said.

The U.K. government announced sanctions against Foxtrot Network and its leader last year “due to their involvement in violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime.”

The sanctions include an asset freeze that bars U.K. businesses from handling funds or other economic assets controlled by the organization.