A Norwegian teenager found guilty in the UK of conspiring to commit murder for Sweden’s most notorious criminal network was handed a 20-year sentence on Friday.

Would-be hitman Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, travelled to Britain in March 2025 to shoot the unknown target for €25,000 euros ($28,000). However, police arrested him at a northern England hotel before he could carry out the hit.

Sentencing Natland at London’s Woolwich Crown Court, Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said he had agreed to “murder for money” at the age of 18.

“At the heart of this case is a stark fact: you agreed to assassinate another human being, a stranger to you, in a foreign country and you knew nothing of that person’s life or circumstances,” she told him.

Officers found two firearms and live bullets in a plastic bag stashed under his hotel room bed, which he had collected from a nearby wooded area.

Natland had been hired by the Swedish-based Foxtrot organised crime group, which the UK government has sanctioned, according to London’s Metropolitan Police. Its wanted leader, Rawa Majid — who has alleged ties to Tehran — formed the network, which has been connected to dozens of violent crimes in Sweden in the late 2010s.

The judge said Natland had previously been a “good student” from a financially secure home, whose life had been disrupted by cannabis and class A drugs to the “horror” of his parents. She noted his immaturity, but said he remained “responsible” for his actions.

“You were recruited to travel to England to kill an unidentified target,” she said. “You agreed to be the enforcer and pursued it despite numerous opportunities to extricate yourself.”

Jurors at London’s Old Bailey court in July found Natland guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. He admitted possessing the firearms and ammunition.

Giving evidence, Natland claimed he had not intended to carry out the killing but was instead planning to “shoot himself in the foot” to avoid repercussions if he had refused the mission.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) London, said Natland was “clearly being tasked by someone in the Foxtrot Network”, sanctioned by the UK and the US for helping to orchestrate “violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime”.

Natland sent messages to his friends back in Norway, including pictures of the guns, police revealed earlier. Natland’s recruiter, a 17-year-old youth, was convicted in Norway of attempting to “contribute to murder” in May 2025.

Three other Norwegian teenagers went on trial in Norway last month on charges of helping plan a murder in Britain.

The identity of the intended victim remains unknown.