Foxtrot network: Norwegian Johannes Kongsnes Natland gets twenty years for UK murder plot
Norwegian Johannes Kongsnes Natland was sentenced in England on 16 October to twenty years’ detention for conspiracy to murder. He had travelled from Norway to England at eighteen. British police say someone in the Foxtrot network directed him. The intended victim has never been identified.
Natland was nineteen when sentenced. A jury had convicted him of the murder conspiracy on 29 July following a retrial. He had admitted possessing firearms and ammunition but denied genuinely intending to kill anyone. The jury rejected that account. No murder was completed: police intervened before the planned attack. The judge ordered release on licence after thirteen years and four months in custody, with the licence continuing until the twenty-year term ends. Separate sentences of five years for each firearm and three years for the ammunition run concurrently; the total remains twenty years.
Detectives arrested him early on 19 March 2025 at a hotel in Huddersfield, two days after he arrived at Manchester Airport. They found two firearms and ammunition under his bed. Police say messages on his phone showed how maps and videos had guided him to a concealed bag of weapons.
The online handler used the name Agent 47. Natland received instructions about his journey, money and hotel, with a payment of €25,000 proposed for the shooting. Police link that direction to Sweden’s Foxtrot network. They also stress that the target remained unknown and that they found no evidence of any direct link to Iran in this particular case.
British and Norwegian police cooperated in the investigation. Police said inquiries into people suspected of helping supply weapons and a stolen car continued after sentencing.
