10000 kg meat smuggled into Finland from Estonia, Latvia

Finnish Customs has investigated two cases of large-scale smuggling of meat into Finland, said Customs in a press release on Tuesday.

More than 10 000 kg of meat was imported from Estonia and Latvia without sufficient documentation during the years 2022–2024.

In the first case, a suspect was apprehended by Customs at the West Harbour in Helsinki in August 2023 when attempting to bring 800 kg of beef from Estonia into Finland.

The meat is suspected to have been transported unprotected in the cargo space of a car without refrigeration and with insufficient documentation.

Customs also suspects that false information on salmonella testing was submitted to the authorities, and that the salmonella certificate was forged. The matter has been investigated as health offence, smuggling and forgery.

In the other case, Customs suspects that more than 9 000 kg of poultry meat was brought into Finland with insufficient or false documents and without refrigeration over a period from November 2022 to February 2024.

The case was uncovered when the Food Safety Unit of the City of Helsinki submitted an investigation request to Customs. The case has been investigated as health offence, unlawful dealing in imported goods and smuggling.

The investigator in charge, Hanna Koskenranta, says that the same shortcomings keep being detected in inspections.

“There are often various errors or shortcomings in the documents, and forged documents may also be presented and salmonella certificates may be lacking. Even though, as a rule, goods can move freely within the EU, various import requirements may apply to foods depending on the country,” said Koskenranta.

The importer is responsible for the product safety and a common motive behind food offences is financial gain.

“In both cases we investigated, the operators were businesses that had registered their operations as required for commercial import of foods under the Finnish Food Act. In other words, the businesses themselves are responsible for the safety of their products and for compliance with the legislation,” Koskenranta added.

The cases involve a total of eight suspects. The preliminary investigations are about to be forwarded to the Prosecution District of Southern Finland for consideration of charges.