It has come to light that in the course of investigations by Helsinki police into a major amphetamines trafficking ring, police located sizeable stashes of the drug hidden in the ground very close to home - in woods near the main police headquarters in Pasila.
Several packets of the drug were found from hiding places just under the ground surface in the Pasila and adjoining Ilmala areas of northern central Helsinki, with one being dug up from underneath a road bridge. Police found the stashes on both sides of the new year.
The joint operation by police and customs officers netted roughly 22 kilos of amphetamines, making this one of the largest cases of recent years, and larger than the incident in 2004 when an Estonian man was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment. The drugs have an estimated street value of several hundred thousand euros, depending on the method of calculation.
Four Estonian men in their 30s are now suspected of running the drug ring. All have been remanded in custody and are awaiting trial. Some were known to Finnish police beforehand.
Detective Inspector Jari Pynnönen says that the men being held have partially cleared up the details of the case, but that certain contradictions still linger in their statements. Investigations began already towards the end of last summer.
It is not completely clear as to where the drugs originated, but Pynnönen believes they were manufactured in Estonia and intended for consumption on the Finnish market.
He would not comment on how the police got on their tracks, how they were followed, or how the stashes were ultimately discovered. These matters will presumably become clearer when the case is heard in the Helsinki District Court sometime in the near future.
