Grinning ‘assassin’ told police he had come to the UK to play Fornite and Fifa with his pals

A Norwegian teenage ‘assassin’ recruited to come to the UK to carry out a murder told border officers he was coming to visit ‘online friends from Fortnite and Fifa’, a court heard.

Johannes Natland, 19, was arrested in a Huddersfield hotel with two guns and 12 rounds of ammunition after being recruited by the Swedish Foxtrot Network linked to the Iranian regime.

Natland came from Stavanger, Norway, which his recruiters described as a ‘warrior city’ ripe for the recruitment of teenage assassins.

The network recruits teenagers to go to other countries to carry out contract killings.

Natland arrived at Manchester airport and was refused entry to the UK after suspicions were raised but he was still allowed to go about the country freely until a return flight four days later.

He was directed to pick up a plastic bag in a wooded area in Huddersfield containing a semi-automatic pistol and a nineteenth century revolver but was caught when armed officers burst into his hotel room on 19 March last year.

He has admitted two charges of unlawfully possessing firearms and one of possession of ammunition but denies conspiracy to murder.

Reading a set of agreed facts to the jury today (weds), prosecutor Tom Williams said Natland arrived at Manchester airport at 7.55pm on 17 March last year.

Natland told a border officer that he had only brought £40 and had not booked a hotel or a return flight, but that a friend owed him some money.

He said he would be visiting ‘online friends from playing Fortnite and Fifa’.

Asked if the friends knew he was coming, he said: ‘No because I might not see them. I might see the sights.’

Asked what sights he wanted to see, he said ‘maybe the museum’.

He said he works in a pizza takeaway in Norway.

He told the officer: ‘I live sometimes with my mum- I have lived recently in institutions, but have left now- it was voluntary.’

Asked if there were any compassionate reasons to allow him to enter the UK he said: ‘Other than my love for the city, no.’

Natland was refused entry to the UK but ‘bailed’ and allowed to leave the airport until a return flight on 21 March.

Mr Williams said: ‘On 19 March 2025 at 5.15am, a deployment of firearms officers arrived at the Briar Court Hotel.

‘They knocked loudly on the door of room 207, where Natland was staying, explaining that it was the police. After more loud requests, the door opened. Natland came out, wearing only boxer shorts and rubbing his eyes as if he had just woken up.

‘Shortly afterwards, he turned towards one of the officers and held his hands up, imitating holding a firearm and pretending to shoot the officer.’

Natland was then arrested and taken to Huddersfield Police Station.

Inside a carrier bag in the hotel room was a four pack of Corona beer, a large bottle of Desperados beer, two cans of Red Bull, Marlboro cigarettes, two lighters and a vape kit.

Mr Williams said that the teenager known as ‘Generalen’ who recruited Natland on behalf of a member of the Foxtrot Network named ‘Agent 47’ has been convicted in Norway.

He said: ‘On 31 May 2025 at Sor-Rogaland District Court in Stavanger, [Generalen] was convicted of attempting, as part of an organised criminal group Foxtrot, to contribute to murder, by recruiting Natland to commit the murder of an unknown person in England by shooting that person.’

‘[Three others] have been charged by the police in Norway with attempting, as part of the organised criminal group Foxtrot, to contribute to the murder of an unknown person in England by shooting that person.

‘A decision has not yet been made by the national prosecuting authority in Norway as to whether to ‘indict’ them, and this means that, at the present time, no trial has taken place.

Natland told a psychiatrist he was mentally unwell when he agreed to go to England and ‘could not see the consequences or analyse what he was getting himself involved in’.

He said he thought he could use the money he would be paid to finance his drug taking, but said he needed to get out of Stavenger to ‘get away from drugs and boredom’.

He said he did not know if the job was real and thought it might be a scam.

He said he was ‘planning to shoot himself in the foot or something’ as he was ‘trying to look cool but did not have the courage to shoot someone’.

A prosecution and a defence psychiatrist agree that Natland has a history of psychotic mental disorder ‘induced by multiple psychoactive substances’.

Natland was discharged from a psychiatric unit in Norway six weeks before travelling to England and was in a ‘recovery phase’ from drug-induced psychotic episodes, the psychiatrists say.

The experts agree that his mental state was not disordered to the extent of him being unbale to form a criminal intent.

‘There is no defence that arises form his mental health,’ Mr Williams said.

Natland had no convictions, cautions or reprimands prior to traveling to the UK.

He denies conspiracy to murder.

The trial continues.

Ends