Agent 47, and a logistics man with the username “1”, then told Natland to get a taxi to Huddersfield.
A series of messages guided him to a wad of cash hidden under some rubbish near the entrance to a footpath tunnel.
He checked into the Briar Court Hotel, paying in cash, and then took another taxi to some woodland at the end of Bradley Boulevard.
There he collected a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and some ammunition.
On returning to the hotel he could not resist sending friends videos of himself handling the guns and a picture of him on the hotel bed with the cash spread out behind him, though this was just the down payment.
“We have much to do tomorrow,” Agent 47 messaged him.
A bit later Natland asked “How does it work with the money?”
“Which money?” Agent 47 replied
“The payment for the job,” Natland fired back.
“You will get it when the job is done,” Agent 47 said. “In cash.”
But by this time Generalen had been arrested by Norwegian police at Oslo airport.
On Generalen’s phone they found messages about a planned “assassination” in England and they warned police in the UK.
Because of the link to the Foxtrot Network, and the network’s connections to Iran, Counter Terrorism Policing got involved. It was a race to track down the gunman before he carried out his hit.
At 05:15 GMT on 19 March 2025, Natland was arrested in Room 207 at the Briar Court Hotel.
As he came out of his room he saw the green aiming dots from the firearms officers’ guns on his chest, and he mimed shooting at one of them, though his guns were still under the bed. He was quickly restrained and handcuffed.
At the Old Bailey, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb ordered a report on the defendant and remanded him into custody.
He is due to be sentenced in October.