Police say Swedish criminal groups sell plans for crimes in Finland

Minister says plans underway to criminalise crime planning

Tuija Brax

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Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says that Swedish criminal organisations have been in Finland drawing up detailed plans for major robberies in Finland, and sold the ready plans to other criminals in Sweden.
      The police have received surveillance reports from abroad, according to which some foreign criminals are currently planning two major heists in Finland.
     
Under Finnish law, the planning of a crime is not a criminal act in itself, except in certain crimes such as genocide, treason, and crimes of terrorism.
      Even some types of violent crimes, including armed robbery, assault, can be planned with impunity in Finland; a crime does not take place until the actual crime is committed, or attempted.
      The NBI believes that foreign professional criminals are aware of the situation, and are therefore attracted to Finland.
     
“We know that the planning of two robberies is taking place in Finland. We do not know at what stage the planning is, or if the plan will ever be carried out”, Teijo Ristola of the NBI said to Helsingin Sanomat.
      Police also do not know if those making the plans aim to carry them out themselves, or if they will sell the plans to other perpetrators.
      Ristola says that the people drawing up the plans are hard-core professional criminals. The police will not say from where they have come to Finland.
      In previous similar cases, the people involved have come from Sweden.
      Ristola says that Finnish police cannot interfere with those planning a crime before a criminal act has taken place, such as the theft of a car, or possession of an illegal weapon.
     
Finnish police know of at least two recent cases in which the perpetrator of a crime bought ready plans from other criminals. Both the suspected sellers of the plans and the buyers were Swedes.
      Police suspect that a group of cash machine robbers who were caught in Pyhäjärvi in October had bought their plans from an outsider.
      The police say that one person, whose identity remains unknown, spent eight months in Finland drawing up detailed plans for the ATM gang.
     
The plans include information about getaway routes, and the location of the nearest police station. There was information of where stolen vehicles might be hidden, and other hiding places for use after the robberies. The plans also had information on when the cash machines are filled”, Ristola says.
      In addition, the planner used false alarms to ascertain how quickly police might be expected to respond, and what are the likely routes that they will take to the scene of the crime.
      The group is suspected of having emptied four ATMs in different parts of Finland. Police say that similar plans existed for seven other cash machine jobs.
     
Police also believe that the Swedes who robbed an armoured vehicle in the back yard of the Turku office of the Bank of Finland had bought their initial criminal plan from another criminal group.
      The robbery took place in February 2007.
      One of the planners is suspected of having taken part in counting the money immediately after the robbery.
      Police believe that the planners were paid EUR 300,000 - one fifth of the EUR 1.5 million that was stolen. The money has not been recovered.
     
Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green) says that there are plans to make the planning of certain serious crimes a crime in itself.
      She would not yet give a precise timetable for the proposal.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Armed gang hits cash consignment; border surveillance tightened (20.2.2007)
  Jail time reduced - preparation of robbery is no crime (1.12.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat