A security expert has warned that a shadowy network hiring baby-faced assassins for hit jobs across Europe should be of the greatest concern to security forces. This follows the conviction of Norwegian Johannes Natland, 19, for conspiring to murder an unknown target in the UK, recruited online by the Iranian-linked Foxtrot international crime syndicate.
Natland was found guilty last week. The case comes amid a wave of violence by Scandinavian youth gangs in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. Now, a foiled attack on British soil has raised alarms.
Expert Warns of Coordinated Attack
Security expert Professor Anthony Glees believes the case will sound alarm bells throughout Western nations. He said: "It is to be seen as part of a concerted wider and deeper attack on our Island home by hostile states and violent criminal organisations, malign actors both, who want to do us great harm. If we let them."
Days after his 18th birthday, Natland traveled alone to the UK, telling Border Force officers at Manchester Airport he was visiting friends met through online gaming. In reality, he was there to carry out an assassination for the Foxtrot network, a Swedish crime group acting as a proxy for Iran.
Recruitment and Arrest
His recruitment followed a pattern seen in other Foxtrot cases: an easy target due to mental health issues and heavy drug addiction, he was recruited by a boy met in a children's care home. For two days last March, anonymous handlers directed Natland to pick up a stolen car, handguns, and ammunition. The plot was stopped by a tip-off from Norwegian police, and armed British police arrested him in a Huddersfield hotel room.
Under the bed, they found a 9mm semi-automatic Luger pistol, a revolver, 12 rounds of live ammunition, and £2,000 in cash. He was awaiting the location and details of his target.
Broader Threat and MI5 Warning
Natland is one of hundreds of teens recruited across Scandinavia to maim and kill for violent cartels like Foxtrot, sanctioned last April by the UK Government for violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe. Prof Glees highlighted comments from 2024 by MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum, who warned of state actors intent on causing harm, particularly Russia, using arson, sabotage, and violence.
Prof Glees added: "Two years on, we're seeing how right he was. We think of numerous acts of sabotage and violence in the past year. There was the brazen attack on RAF Brize Norton, the firebombing of two properties and a Honda all owned at some point by Keir Starmer as well as the attacks on our defence industry, warehouses holding equipment for Ukraine."
He noted that Natland fits into this context, acting out his fantasy even during arrest. Natland told his girlfriend: "Now I can finally kill someone and it's perfect, as I get money to do it. I can kill someone and life will be wonderful."
Violence Among Young Brits
Prof Glees cited Dame Sara Khan, who said 29 per cent of young Brits aged 18 to 34 believe violence is acceptable, and 15 per cent of these are highly dangerous 'violence fixated' individuals. He warned that malign actors fish in this "foul cesspit," often via Telegram or the Dark Web, offering £21,000 for a murder and less for firebombing.
He concluded: "We must learn carefully from what his case tells us. Yes, MI5 had the right intelligence, presumably from an agent inside the Swedish 'Foxtrot' group who recruited him. But we can see, too, that most of the agents now recruited and deployed by malign actors are themselves not political. This makes them much harder for MI5 to detect."
