Dealers accused of Helsinki heroin death blame each other

The unravelling of the heroin ring that started in December with the overdose death of a 27-year-old Finnish man in a Helsinki hotel will continue today at the Helsinki District Court.
      In all, nearly 30 individuals have been charged with various drugs offences. In the Court’s calendar, ten days have been reserved for the handling of the case.
      During the proceedings, one of the key questions is who knew that the substance used in the Hotel Glo was heroin and not cocaine.
      According to the prosecution, the three Nigerian dealers of the substance were aware of its true nature.
      In addition to multiple drugs offences, the three men are also being accused of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and aggravated causing of bodily harm.
      According to the prosecutor, the three men dealt the drug in mutual agreement. The accused have denied the charges brought against them.
     
From the police’s preliminary investigation material it becomes evident that the men called and sent each other several text messages in the course of the night and the morning of the fateful events. Based on telecommunications data retention, the suspects can be connected with several of the scenes where the events unfolded.
     
In the police hearings, the men kept changing their stories and kept blaming each other for the heroin.
      In the interrogations the 29-year-old man who took the drug to a location near the Hotel Glo said that he thought he was delivering marihuana.
      In a house search the police uncovered more than 800 grams of heroin in the man’s suitcase. According to the man, an associate of his had placed the drug there.
     
The associate admitted to the police that at some point the substance had been kept and packaged in his home, but that it belonged to the 29-year-old.
      According to him, the 29-year-old had also enquired from him about potential buyers for the heroin. He, in turn, had asked about possible buyers from the third accused man.
     
In later hearings, however, the 33-year-old man denied having even heard the word heroin before the interrogations, and accused the police of lying.
      The third accused delivered the heroin consignment brought near the hotel into the building.
      According to the police, in the early hours of the same morning he had produced a sample batch of the substance that he had acquired from the 33-year-old.
      In the interrogations the man said that he thought the substance was cocaine.
     
     
Details of the incident in December 2009 are to be found from the linked stories below.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Last week´s overdose death leads police to major heroin bust (18.12.2009)
  Drug death in Helsinki hotel leads to trafficking arrests (9.12.2009)
  Drug sold as cocaine suspected in poisoning death in Helsinki hotel (8.12.2009)

See also:
  Exceptionally potent heroin blamed in two overdose deaths in Helsinki (25.4.2008)

Links:
  Dangerous substance being sold as cocaine in Helsinki (Poliisi.fi, 8.12.2009)