Finnish Customs suspect possible criminal infiltration
Officials believe employees may have leaked information to smugglers
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Suspicions have arisen within Finnish Customs in recent years of leaks from within the service to criminal organisations.
Indications of a mole within the customs service have come up in interrogations during criminal investigations, and in connection with wiretapping. Officials in other branches of government have also offered evidence of such infiltration.
Some customs officials are known to have visited criminals in prison.
One of the most serious cases came up last year, when a man who came to work for the customs service was found to be in close contact with the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang.
The man had passed a number of courses for new employees, and was given a fixed-term job.
He was sacked from his post in Helsinki, but later got a new job at another unit of Finnish Customs. He soon had to leave that post as well.
Officials later found out that while he was at work he had gone through the customs computer files.
Another case that was considered serious came up a few years ago, when investigators found a comprehensive list of customs officials working at Finnish harbours in the possession of an Estonian driver who was under investigation in a drug smuggling case.
The apparent purpose of the list was to help avoid the most difficult customs agents.
The file had the officials’ photographs, names, and short descriptions. The descriptions included such characterisations as "meticulous", "partial to drink", and "enthusiastic about his work".
The characterisations were reportedly quite accurate. The writer was never found.
The head of the supervision section of Finnish Customs, Juha Niskanen, says that the service is constantly working to improve background checks and internal supervision.
He said that a normal background check had been done with the man with links to the motorcycle gang, but nothing out of the ordinary came up. "Suspicions came only later", he says.
Niskanen regards the finding of personnel information in the possession of an Estonian suspect in a drug case as very serious.
"The discovery shows how professionally the criminal organisations work."
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 7.5.2004 - TODAY |
 Finnish Customs suspect possible criminal infiltration |
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