The Helsinki police detected an organised smuggling gang and recovered at least 15 kilograms cocaine and huge counterfeit euro notes, said police in a press release on Thursday.
Police also arrested five, out of the total 13 suspects in separate raids from home and abroad in this connection since March this year.
The gang smuggled the cocaine into Finland in a series of operations and even used a vehicle carrying a child under three years old on one occasion.
The suspects came from different European countries and rented an apartment at Lauttasaari in Helsinki for drug storage.
The preliminary investigation revealed that the criminal gang had been operative since at least August 2024.
In its first operation in March, police arrested two people and recovered about five kilograms of cocaine, 30 kilograms of marijuana and counterfeit notes of more than 100,000 euros.
Before the arrests, police observed that the suspects exchanged cocaine and counterfeit notes of 80,000 euros between them.
“The amount of counterfeit money seized by the police is very large, and the counterfeit banknotes were made quite skilfully. It is rare in organised drug crime for parties to pay each other or even dare to pay using counterfeit money," said head investigator, Detective Chief Inspector Markku Juurikkamäki.
After the arrests, police conducted another search in the apartment at Lauttasaari and recovered about three kilograms of cocaine, said police, adding that the suspects installed a surveillance camera in the apartment.
In early May, the police arrested the mastermind of the gang and on the following day arrested the second main suspect from Belgium after issuance of a European arrest warrant through international cooperation.
The gangs smuggled several consignments of cocaine and one consignment of about seven kilos was imported in October 2024, when a man was driving a car in guise of a courier personnel when his spouse and a child under three years were passengers in the car.
Based on the preliminary investigation, the suspects believed to have laundered drug proceeds to countries such as Kosovo and Belgium and transferred hundreds of thousands of euros abroad.
The origin of the counterfeit notes, however, could not be known at the preliminary stage of the investigation.
The case was forwarded to the prosecutor this week and the date for filing charges was set on August 13.
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
