Drugs worth €2.5m smuggled to Finland from Latvia, 4 held

An organised gang smuggled significant quantity of narcotics to Finland from Latvia in postal consignments on several occasions during the recent period, said Finnish Customs in a press release on Wednesday.

Customs said that the organisation smuggled a total of about 146 kilograms of amphetamines, 1.6 kilos of cocaine as well as smaller quantities of other drugs.

The street value of the narcotics was around 2.5 million euros in total, and the number of single doses over 600 000.

Four individuals were detained in connection with the smuggling.

After the preliminary investigation, Customs forwarded the case to the prosecution district of Southern Finland for consideration of charges.

In the spring of 2024, Customs revealed that a narcotics importing and distributing organisation consisting of several Latvian individuals imported the drugs to Finland from Latvia in postal consignments and stored as well as distributed onward in Eastern and Western Finland.

In the beginning of March, Customs stopped two individuals who arrived in Finland from Latvia via Estonia and Customs seized a large quantity of narcotics from them.

After the preliminary investigation Customs found that the individuals were part of an import and distribution organisation led from Latvia.

The criminal organisation operated by sending consignments containing narcotics from Latvia to Finland, after which individuals belonging to the organisation arrived in Finland to retrieve the consignments. Later they stored the narcotics and distributed to the buyers.

“Customs’ strong expertise as supervisor of goods traffic and as expert in foreign trade logistics plays a key role in exposing narcotics offences,” said Director of Enforcement Hannu Sinkkonen, Head of Customs Investigation.

During Customs’ preliminary investigation, it was established that postal consignments containing narcotics were sent to Finland 28 times in all.

“Finnish Customs is still cooperating with the Latvian law enforcement authorities with the aim of uncovering the whole organisation in Latvia,” said Tatu Suvikas, Investigator in Charge.