University of Helsinki docent denies drug charges

Ecstasy trial begins in Helsinki

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A docent* at the University of Helsinki, who went on trial on Wednesday on suspicion of aggravated drug crimes, denies any involvement in illegal drugs.
     Nine people are accused of various drug-related offences in a trial which began at a secure courtroom of Helsinki District Court on Wednesday.
     The university lecturer, who has been in custody since April, is one of the three main suspects in case involving a suspected Russian-Estonian-Finnish drug syndicate.
     
Police suspect that the group smuggled as many as 35,000 ecstasy pills from Central Europe. Of this quantity, 23,000 were confiscated in one of Finland’s largest seizures of the drug.
     Police say that the street value of the confiscated drugs would have been about EUR 300,000.
     The defendants range in age from 22 to 44.
     The trial is expected to last at least until Friday, and possibly continue on Tuesday next week.
     
Police caught up with the suspects after tracing the movements of a bag containing ecstasy pills from a shopping mall in the north of Helsinki to Vantaa.
     Police also conducted a search at the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Helsinki. Police say that drugs were stored there.
     The department has put the docent on suspension.
     
* See link below for an explanation of the term, which is not commonly used in British English. "Reader" might be an equivalent position.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  University of Helsinki docent suspected of aggravated drug crime (4.9.2008)
  Docent (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat