londonReuters —
A Norwegian teenager who flew to Britain to commit murder after being recruited online by a Swedish organized crime group with ties to Iran was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday.
British prosecutors said Johannes Natland, now 19, was recruited by the Foxtrot network, a Swedish criminal organization that pays young people to carry out “violence in service” for clients including the Iranian state.
He was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in July. Prosecutors said Natland was not told the identity of the person he agreed to kill in exchange for a payment of 270,000 Norwegian kroner (about $28,600).
The case is one of several in recent years of young people going on trial in the UK for serious criminal offenses committed after being recruited online. Britain says some of them ended up acting as unwitting agents of foreign states such as Iran and Russia.
Foxtrot has been linked to several murders across Europe, and the UK and US claim the group is behind attacks targeting Israel and Jews on behalf of Iran, an allegation Iran denies.
Mr Natland, who had just turned 18 when he flew to the UK from Norway, responded to an ad offering money to kill, saying: “Nothing will go wrong.”
He admitted having a semi-automatic handgun, revolver and ammunition, but denied conspiracy to commit murder, saying he had no intention of carrying out the plan and even considered shooting himself in the leg to escape the plan.
But prosecutors said Nutland was an enthusiastic new employee who boasted to a friend that he was great at killing people.
Nutland was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Judge Bobby Cheema-Glubb at London’s Woolwich Crown Court, saying he believed he would have carried out the murder had police not caught him.
“This was not an impulsive act that lasted a few seconds… Your actions showed purpose and tenacity,” she said, adding that Natland will be jailed for at least 13 years.
“Our priority now is to bring him home. We will work to ensure his transfer to Norway as soon as possible,” Natland’s Norwegian lawyer Farid Bouras said in a statement.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of London’s counter-terrorism police, said there was no evidence of a direct link to Iran in the Natland case, a warning to those who might be scouted as criminal agents.
“As Natland discovered, the people who orchestrate these crimes do not protect you from the consequences,” she said.
