Police bust big cocaine smuggling ring
Group swallowed packages of drug
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Police report uncovering an exceptionally large cocaine smuggling and distribution ring. The couriers brought hundreds of grammes of cocaine at a time into Finland inside their bodies. The drug was in small packages which the smugglers swallowed.
The cocaine was mainly sold in restaurants in the centre of Helsinki.
The case under investigation by the East Uusimaa Police is one of the largest suspected cocaine operations ever unveiled in Finland. The group is suspected of having imported and distributed about 1.5 kg. of cocaine into Finland with an estimated street value of about 150,000.
Police seized about 350 grammes of the substance, the equivalent of about 20,000 single doses.
Fifteen people have been interrogated on suspicion of involvement in the affair, some of whom have been detained. Five people remain in remand. The suspects are citizens of Finland, Congo, Nigeria, Gambia, France, Syria and Gabon.
Investigators say that they have uncovered six separate chains involving sending consignments of the drug, received deliveries, financed the wholesale acquisition of the drug, and distributed the drug to dealers and to individual consumers.
Police say that an exceptional aspect of the operation, which was mainly directed by foreign citizens, is the role that one key suspect allegedly had as a wholesale distributor. The male suspect was an entrepreneur in the security business. Police confiscated thousands of euros in his possession, as well as a quantity of cocaine, and a legally-owned 9 mm Glock handgun and tear gas spray.
The case will go to prosecutors later this month.
Helsingin Sanomat
