Police forces in Finland and Spain have cooperated on an operation to smash a large drugs smuggling and drugs sales operation.
Officers in Helsinki, Tampere and Häme joined forces with their Spanish counterparts to arrest two Finnish nationals they say are guilty of coordinating their drugs empire from Spain, although there are also dozens of other Finnish suspects being looked at.
The investigation began in Tampere back in 2018 and eventually included other investigative strands from a case in Helsinki which turned out to be linked.
“The police investigation teams have done a very good job of investigating the clues and the links between them so that these two separate investigations have been combined, as the investigation proceeds, into one entity” explains Commissioner Toni Uusikivi.
Police say the smuggling operation brought in more than 200kg of amphetamines; 15kg of cocaine; more than 100,000 ecstasy tablets; 2kg of crystal meth; more than 30kg of MDMA; more than 20,000 tabs of LSD; around two million narcotics pills; and 60kg of hashish to Finland.
Doping substances like testosterone, anabolic steroids and growth hormones were also smuggled to Finland; as well as opionds such as oxycodone and benzodiazepines.
While officers have intercepted large quantities of drugs and money, it’s by no means the full amount.
Officers believe the drugs were brought to Finland via the Netherlands, in several batches, including hidden in trucks and were ultimately sold here. Jari Nikonen from Helsinki Police says their investigation looked into the face-to-face drug deals as well as online sales.
The whole criminal enterprise is estimated to be worth €4 million and the case will likely come to court at the start of 2020.
