Stiff sentences for "bat tattoo" drug gang
Professional drug trafficking will keep gang leaders in prison for years
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Eight members of an organized drug gang whose members all wore bat tattoos were found guilty of widespread and professional drug trafficking at the Vantaa District Court on Monday. The toughest of them received a prison sentence of up to nine years.
Altogether 13 men and one woman were sentenced to prison terms. The lighter convictions varied from less than a year to two years. The toughest perpetrators have been held in custody since last summer. Eight individuals received sentences of six years or more.
A total of about 70 persons have been suspected of the same chain of offences. Over 50 of them were in custody or under arrest during the investigations. Several of them have already been convicted in separate legal proceedings.
The verdict handed down in Vantaa is the latest sentence passed in the gradually increasing number of convictions for criminal gangs. The gang that was now sentenced uses a bat tattoo between the forefinger and thumb as their symbol.
According to the district court, the symbol clearly proves that the men belong to the same organized criminal gang, although the accused tried to assure the court that they were just a group of friends who have known each other for a long time.
Through phone tapping, police got hold of some items of evidence which revealed the connection between the tattoos and the gang membership. On the other hand, one of the perpetrators did not have the tattoo because he had not been granted full membership yet.
The charges against the gang and its accomplices related to a number of offences involving drugs and economic crimes, as well as firearms violations during the years 2002 and 2003.
The most severe sentences were handed down for aggravated drug trafficking offences. Moreover, police found a number of weapons, including hand grenades, that had been left behind by the gang in one of the suburbs of Helsinki.
Part of the charges relating to firearms and explosives were dropped as police could not determine to whom the weapons ultimately belonged.
The total amount of drugs that the gang had brought into Finland included 61 kilos of hashish, five kilos of amphetamine, and thousands of ecstasy tablets. Furthermore, other dealers have distributed nine kilos of amphetamine coming out of the same source.
For the most part, the drugs were traded in central Uusimaa Province, although the dealers had connections to many other regions as well.
Helsingin Sanomat
