Iran's European proxies: Criminal gangs recruit teens for terror

On July 29, a London court convicted a 19-year-old Norwegian teenager of conspiracy to murder. He was hours away from carrying out an assassination on behalf of a Swedish criminal group that runs the Scandinavian drug trade and is linked to Iran.

The case is a stark illustration of how Iran is using gangs to wage “a war of terror across Europe,” the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

Johannes Natland was recruited in Norway by the Foxtrot Network, “Europe’s most menacing gang,” according to the paper. His handler was Ali Shehab, 22, a Swedish-Iraqi gangster, who went by the name Agent 47, the main character from the video game “Hitman.”

An expert described Shebab as “one of the most important recruiters for Foxtrot in recent years.” He is a “close ally” of Foxtrot’s chief, Rawa Majid, 39, also Swedish-Iraqi, known as “the Kurdish Fox.”

“Foxtrot has been linked to attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets across Europe,” the Mail reported.

Natland appeared the most unlikely of assassins. He grew up a middle-class kid, playing soccer in Stavanger, a wealthy town in southwest Norway. He wanted to be a lawyer.

But Natland was a troubled teenager. He didn’t like his idyllic town. He told the jury there was nothing to do there. He started experimenting with drugs at the age of 13.

He spent time in a psychiatric center. There, he met another teenager. That teen, who went by the online moniker “Unknown Hustler,” would later send him a message referring to a “japping,” Norwegian slang for murder, and a bounty of £21,000 (~$28,000).

The teen said “nothing can go wrong.” Minutes later, Natland was added to a group chat with “Generalen,” a recruiter from his town, and Shehab.

Just over an hour later, he messaged his girlfriend, Sara Solbi: “I’m going on a crazy mission,” the Mail reported. Solbi told the court that Natland bragged, “Now I can finally kill someone and it’s perfect. I get money to do it.”

At the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales (Old Bailey), jurors learned over a two-week trial that Natland was exactly the type of person whom the Foxtrot Network recruits.

Foxtrot looks for kids as young as 13 for missions, Norwegian prosecutors told the Mail. One online group called “Samurai Kids” included up to 11,000 members. It has since been closed.

In Foxtrot’s hierarchy, “instigators” such as Shebab order the crime and finance it. “Recruiters” such as Geneeralen sit below them. Then come the “enforcers,” the teenagers.

On March 17, Natland flew to Manchester under direct instructions from Shebab. In England, he was handed to another agent (unidentified in the report, he is believed to reside in the U.K.).

Natland then traveled to Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, about 30 miles northeast of Manchester, where he was directed to a wooded area, obtaining a pistol, a revolver, 12 rounds of ammunition and £2,000 (~$2,700) in cash from a hidden location.

Natland checked into a hotel in Huddersfield. He messaged his girlfriend a picture of himself smiling and holding a pistol with the message: “Soon it will happen.”

Authorities had already tracked him down. They had two leads. Norwegian police had intercepted a message on March 15 from Generalen talking about a “mission in Europe.” Generalen was arrested at the airport in Oslo two days later regarding another plot.

Second, a teacher and classmate of Natland contacted police after he told friends at a party that he was involved with “the Foxes,” a reference to the Foxtrot gang. “I am going to get a lot of money, someone is going to die,” he said.

On March 19, after being traced to Huddersfield, police arrested him in the early morning. As Foxtrot doesn’t tell its“enforcers” the intended target until the last moment, Natland was arrested before he learned whom he was to kill. The intended victim has not been identified.

Iran may have been behind the hit, the Mail reported.

Natland admitted to possession of the guns but denied his plans to kill. In a contradiction, he told the court he thought the whole thing was a “joke,” but also said he planned to carry out an act of self-sabotage and shoot himself in the foot. He said he was afraid if he backed out Foxtrot would kill him.

Natland said he only bragged about the plot to “look cool.” He told the jury that he wasn’t “a cold-blooded professional hit man like Liam Neeson [from the film ‘Taken’],” but “a drug addict.”

In December, Shehab was arrested in Iraq, suspected of involvement in 23 attempted murders and five murders.

Generalen, only 17-years-old, was convicted in Norway of multiple counts of accessory to murder and accessory to attempted murder for plots in Sweden, Norway and Huddersfield.

Natland is likely to receive a lengthy sentence, the Mail reported.

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