A Norwegian teenager was recruited by a Swedish organised crime group used by the Iranian regime to murder someone in England, a court has heard.
Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, travelled to the UK on March 17 last year with the plan to “undertake a hit” in exchange for money, it is alleged.
The teenager was acting for an organisation called Foxtrot Network, but was prevented from carrying out an attack after he was arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, two days after his arrival, The Old Bailey in London heard.
Police found a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and 12 rounds of live ammunition in his possession, it heard.
Prosecutor Alastair Richardson told the trial opening that Natland, from Stavanger in south-west Norway, had agreed to work for the group “in return for some money”.
The court was told that an individual referred to as Agent 47 had contacted a figure with the username Generalen to ask for someone to carry out an assassination in the UK. In the message, Agent 47 told Generalen that there was €25,000 (£21,590) “in the pot”.
Jurors heard that Natland was contacted on March 15 by a user called UnknownHustler, informing him of the job. Natland later messaged his girlfriend to say: “I’m going on a crazy mission.” Jurors were shown further messages in which Generalen, in a group chat with Natland, told Agent 47: “This is the assassin for EU, brother.”
The defendant flew from Norway to Manchester Airport on March 17, arriving that evening. Upon arrival, Natland was interviewed by Border Force officers over concerns about his age and lack of money. He told them he had arrived in the city to visit his gamer friends and see landmarks, the court was told.
The defendant left the airport and took a taxi to a hotel in Manchester. That night, Agent 47 sent him a message reading: “Sleep and when you wake up we start.”
The following day, Natland was directed to collect the guns and ammunition from a wooded area and messaged his girlfriend to say: “In the bag is bang.” He also bought rubber gloves and lined up a car, the prosecutor told jurors.
On the morning of March 19, firearms officers went to the Briar Court Hotel in Huddersfield to arrest Natland. As the defendant came to the doorway, he held his hands up “imitating holding a firearm, and pretended to shoot one of the officers”, the court heard.
The prosecutor said: “You may think that of itself gives you a little insight about what he was in the United Kingdom to do.”
Mr Richardson told jurors: “The group that had recruited him, the Foxtrot Network, is a Swedish organised crime group used by the Iranian regime.
“We do not know who the defendant was planning to murder, but as you will see from his messages, the messages of others, and what he told his friends in Norway before he set out on his plan, it was clear that was his plan.”
Mr Richardson told jurors that while it was a Swedish-based group, its leaders lived elsewhere. He added: “The Foxtrot Network often use perpetrators who are very young, and with whom they have no direct link.
“The use of social media has enabled the rapid increase of cross-border crime. The groups used by the Foxtrot Network, also known as the Swedish Foxes, can have anything from a few to several thousand members, with group names such as Samurai Children.”
Mr Richardson said that the group operated with several levels of organisation, including instigators, which “fits neatly” with Agent 47, and lower-end recruiters such as Generalen. He added that facilitators were said to be responsible for the logistics of the crime, and enforcers were the young men at the “bottom of the chain”.
The prosecutor added: “Recruitment of enforcers is focused on young individuals, often those linked to institutions such as care homes. In general, they have no connection with the intended victim.”
Mr Richardson said he was telling the jurors this so they understood the serious nature of the enterprise the defendant had allegedly entered into.
He said this would help them to understand “how an 18-year-old from a foreign country was able to enter into an agreement to murder someone he did not know and did not care about, in the United Kingdom”.
Natland denies a charge of conspiracy to murder. He has previously pleaded guilty to possession of the two firearms and ammunition. The trial continues.
