Norwegian teen Johannes Natland was sentenced to 20 years for a UK contract-killing plot tied to the Foxtrot Network.

No one was shot, and police never identified the intended target. That did not matter to the conspiracy count: the jury found that Natland agreed to kill and took real steps toward doing it, including collecting the guns, the cash and a stolen car. His Norwegian lawyers called 20 years very severe for someone who was 18 when he was arrested and said they will seek to have him moved to Norway to serve the sentence.

Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, of Stavanger, Norway, was sentenced on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, to 20 years for conspiracy to murder, Counter Terrorism Policing London and the Metropolitan Police announced. He must serve a minimum of 13 years in custody. He also received a concurrent five-year term after earlier pleading guilty to possessing firearms and ammunition. The BBC and The Guardian reported that the sentence is 20 years' detention, and that Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb imposed it at a televised hearing in London after a jury unanimously convicted him at a retrial.

According to police, Natland flew into Manchester Airport on March 17, 2025, shortly after his 18th birthday, using an emergency passport. The BBC reported that Border Force officers stopped him and told him to take the next direct flight home. Instead, investigators said, he took a taxi to Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, retrieved a bag with a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and 19 bullets from a wooded hiding spot, picked up about 2,000 pounds in cash and was directed to a stolen Nissan with false plates. Armed officers arrested him at the Briar Court Hotel early on March 19, 2025. Police said the guns were hidden in a plastic bag under his bed.

Prosecutors said Natland had been offered 25,000 euros to carry out a shooting in the UK, with instructions coming from a user called "Agent 47." The BBC reported that Norwegian police arrested the teenager who recruited him and found messages about the UK plot on his phone, which set off the search for Natland. The Guardian reported that he took selfies with the guns and cash on his hotel bed and told his girlfriend he had the "bangs in the bag." At trial, Natland admitted the firearms count but said he planned to shoot himself in the foot to get out of the job. "I wasn't an international assassin," he told jurors, according to the BBC. The jury rejected that account.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the Foxtrot Network is sanctioned by the UK and the US over violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime, but that investigators found no evidence of a direct link to Iran in this case and never identified the intended victim. Police said the investigation continues into people suspected of helping Natland get the guns and the stolen car. A 27-year-old man arrested in September 2025 on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder was released under investigation, and two men arrested in Bradford in May on suspicion of handling a stolen car were released on bail. None of them has been charged. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.