Norwegian teenager guilty of travelling to UK to carry out contract killing

Johannes Kongsnes Natland was recruited to murder unknown person by international crime gang linked to Iran A Norwegian teenager has been found guilty of travelling to England to carry out a killing ordered by an international crime gang linked to Iran. Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, from Stavanger, Norway, agreed to shoot an unknown person for €25,000 (£21,500) in March last year. Two days after he arrived in the UK armed police arrested him in a hotel room in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, seizing two guns and ammunition. After deliberating for 17 hours and six minutes, a jury at the Old Bailey found him guilty of conspiracy to murder following a retrial. Natland blinked but did not visibly react to the verdict. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb remanded him into custody to be sentenced in October. Natland, who worked part-time in a pizza restaurant, was recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organised crime group with links to the Iranian government. Natland told jurors he agreed at first to the murder plot in exchange for money to pay for drugs, thinking it was just a “joke” or “scam”. Once he realised he was in a “pickle” with the Foxtrot Network, Natland said he planned to “shoot