Norway teen was in UK to 'undertake a hit' - court

[rodericb]

Teen from Norway flies into the UK to commit a hit on behalf of Iranian crime gang. Wat?!?!

I don't know if we had a thread about this when it all transpired but this is in court currently.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2pjk8ggrdo

https://news.sky.com/story/norwegian-teen-accused-...

Whoa!

[MikeM6]

Quite scary how easy this appeared to be. What bothered me and stood out for me was this:

When Generalen asked about the location, Richardson said Agent 47 replied: "Great Britain. As easy as can be."

Is Britain an easier place to commit these crimes? Fortunately it was halted in this instance so someone was doing good work!

[Ritchie335is]

Playing at being a top international hitman, oh st, my passport is out of date, oops!

[JuanCarlosFandango]

What's nuts is that he turned up on an emergency passport wirh no return flighr, money or hotel bookings etc, was detained and then released but told to go home in a few days. Not that it necessarily follows that every broke backpacker is carrying out a hit for an Iranian crime syndicate but surely there are enough alarm bells there to have sent him on his way sooner?

[gotoPzero]

JuanCarlosFandango said:

What's nuts is that he turned up on an emergency passport wirh no return flighr, money or hotel bookings etc, was detained and then released but told to go home in a few days. Not that it necessarily follows that every broke backpacker is carrying out a hit for an Iranian crime syndicate but surely there are enough alarm bells there to have sent him on his way sooner?

Detention was to probably buy some time and sniff through some things get teams ready etc. I would expect he would have been followed every second of this from the sounds of it and UKBF were probably fully briefed on what to do.

[swisstoni]

gotoPzero said:

JuanCarlosFandango said:

What's nuts is that he turned up on an emergency passport wirh no return flighr, money or hotel bookings etc, was detained and then released but told to go home in a few days. Not that it necessarily follows that every broke backpacker is carrying out a hit for an Iranian crime syndicate but surely there are enough alarm bells there to have sent him on his way sooner?

Detention was to probably buy some time and sniff through some things get teams ready etc. I would expect he would have been followed every second of this from the sounds of it and UKBF were probably fully briefed on what to do.

I'd love to think they had the resources to tail a suspect for days but I doubt it somehow.

[gotoPzero]

swisstoni said:

gotoPzero said:

JuanCarlosFandango said:

What's nuts is that he turned up on an emergency passport wirh no return flighr, money or hotel bookings etc, was detained and then released but told to go home in a few days. Not that it necessarily follows that every broke backpacker is carrying out a hit for an Iranian crime syndicate but surely there are enough alarm bells there to have sent him on his way sooner?

Detention was to probably buy some time and sniff through some things get teams ready etc. I would expect he would have been followed every second of this from the sounds of it and UKBF were probably fully briefed on what to do.

I'd love to think they had the resources to tail a suspect for days but I doubt it somehow.

Given a) he was caught and b) who he was working for I expect in this case thats what happened.

Basically school boy errors all the way from the sounds of it. Which helps I guess!

Vs the professionals i.e the Church enthusiasts who manage to slip in and out.

[rodericb]

gotoPzero said:

swisstoni said:

gotoPzero said:

JuanCarlosFandango said:

What's nuts is that he turned up on an emergency passport wirh no return flighr, money or hotel bookings etc, was detained and then released but told to go home in a few days. Not that it necessarily follows that every broke backpacker is carrying out a hit for an Iranian crime syndicate but surely there are enough alarm bells there to have sent him on his way sooner?

Detention was to probably buy some time and sniff through some things get teams ready etc. I would expect he would have been followed every second of this from the sounds of it and UKBF were probably fully briefed on what to do.

I'd love to think they had the resources to tail a suspect for days but I doubt it somehow.

Given a) he was caught and b) who he was working for I expect in this case thats what happened.

Basically school boy errors all the way from the sounds of it. Which helps I guess!

Vs the professionals i.e the Church enthusiasts who manage to slip in and out.

If it was like that, it has a whiff of entrapment about it. I suspect that kids life is now on the way to ruination for a stupid act.

[TeaNoSugar]

rodericb said:

If it was like that, it has a whiff of entrapment about it. I suspect that kids life is now on the way to ruination for a stupid act.

I see what you’re saying; 19 years old is pretty young to be working as some kind of European hitman!! I’m sure it’ll be an interesting trial. It already sounds absolutely bonkers!

[Gareth79]

I assume they knew what he was going to do the entire time, either through our security services or those in Norway. They pulled him aside to sus him out, a security services officer was probably with the Border Force to observe. They then let him go because they wanted to see the pickup of the weapons and if anything he did would lead them to anybody else working in this country, ie. those who supplied and hid the weapons.

They must pick young people just because many are easy to manipulate, have no real appreciation of risk, and are presumably much cheaper than a "pro".

Russia used the same tactics for attacks on Ukraine-linked businesses, eg. the warehouse fire:
https://www.counterterrorism.police.uk/news/men-wh...

I was about to say I assume it's the same case for the arson attacks on Starmer's former house and car too, but I just saw they are on trial right now, and that is indeed the case:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx21y204zz4o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9v32d8xpnko

Edited by Gareth79 on Thursday 4th June 11:26