Customs seizes cocaine worth €2m smuggled to Finland

Finnish Customs seized a large consignment of cocaine while smuggling from Sweden to Finland in June, said Customs in a press release on Friday.

The cocaine was brought with the intention to distribute in the Helsinki region.

Customs stopped a car with foreign registration plates in the Port of Naantali. The car was arriving on a ferry from Sweden and it was driven by a person residing in Denmark.

In the customs control, a constructed hidden compartment was found in the structures of the vehicle. The hidden compartment contained a total of 15 kg of cocaine, which was seized by Customs.

The preliminary investigation by Customs has shown that the cocaine was hidden in the car’s hidden compartment elsewhere in Europe, and that it was smuggled to Finland through Denmark and Sweden in the hidden compartment.

Upon request by Finnish Customs, a house search of the suspect’s apartment in Denmark was conducted, and a small amount of cocaine and some forged ID’s were seized from the apartment.

“The amount that was now seized is large in comparison with last year, when Customs seized 16 kg of cocaine in total. This is one of the largest seizures of narcotics in the ports of the Turku area,” said Kimmo Kaunisto, lead investigator of Customs’ investigation unit in Turku.

The street value of the cocaine would have been around 2,250,000 euros in total. The seized amount would have been enough for roughly 150,000 doses.

Finnish Customs has cooperated with preliminary investigation authorities from other EU countries in the preliminary investigation into the case.

A Romanian citizen has been held during the investigation and the person is still being held on remand.

Finnish Customs has investigated the case as an aggravated narcotics offence.

The preliminary investigation of the case will be concluded in the summer of 2024, and after that the case will be forwarded to the Prosecution District of Western Finland for consideration of charges.