Customs seizes cocaine worth €150K at Helsinki Airport

Finnish Customs seized about one kilogram of cocaine worth about 150 000 euros from Helsinki Airport in September, said Customs in a press release on Monday.

The attempted smuggling of narcotics was revealed in a customs control at the airport when a middle-aged man with foreign background was trying to bring the cocaine inside his body to Finland.

He had swallowed 100 cocaine capsules of around 10 grams each. Customs seized a total of 998 grams of cocaine from the person.

“All the cocaine capsules were got out of the person’s body safely, but he still developed serious complications, which required a long hospital stay,” said Kimmo Jauhiainen, the investigator in charge of the case.

Jauhiainen said that bringing in narcotics inside the body is always extremely risky and, in the worst case, may even cause death.

Customs’ narcotics seizures have increased considerably during 2024.

In the period January–September this year, Customs has seized roughly 44 kilograms of cocaine, which is triple the amount seized last year.

The case has been investigated as an aggravated narcotics offence.

The preliminary investigation is about to be completed, and in the next few days, the case will be forwarded to the Prosecution District of Southern Finland for consideration of charges.