Skip to content

Finnish Customs and Dutch police expose drug organisation

Publication date 16.11.2017 8.00 | Published in English on 16.11.2017 at 8.44
Press release

Finnish Customs and the Dutch police authorities have cooperated in investigating a Dutch organisation that smuggled and distributed narcotics and sent more than one hundred postal and courier consignments containing drugs from the Netherlands to Finland. The street value of the seized drug consignments would have been about 415 000 euros.

In early summer 2017, Finnish Customs seized several postal consignments containing narcotics that were sent by an individual in the Netherlands to various locations in Finland. Customs officers seized over 1 300 grams of alpha-PVP, about 9 500 ecstasy tablets and about 100 grams of cocaine and 200 grams of amphetamine in the consignments.

Based on the preliminary investigation of the case by Finnish Customs, the Dutch authorities started an operation where seven persons in the Netherlands were detained, and 67 000 ecstasy tablets, 230 grams of cocaine and 700 grams of MDMA powder was seized. Furthermore, the Dutch authorities conducted house searches and seized dozens of kilos of psychoactive substances, some of which are legal in the Netherlands and some classified as narcotics.

During the preliminary investigation of the criminal case, more than ten persons were detained in Finland, and almost one hundred persons in Finland, the Netherlands and Germany were suspected of criminal acts.

TOR network used in ordering narcotics

In the preliminary investigation by Finnish Customs, it was established that the TOR network was used for ordering narcotics, and several drug consignments were paid for in bitcoins. Narcotics sent from the Netherlands to Finland were distributed for example via the Sipulikanava imageboard and the Wickr instant messaging service.

In the preliminary investigation, Finnish Customs cooperated with the Dutch police authorities, the Finnish Bureau of Investigation and the Helsinki Police Department.

The smuggling and distribution of narcotics investigated by Customs involves several aggravated and standard narcotics offences. The preliminary investigation into the case has been concluded in Finland, and the Prosecutor’s Office of Eastern Uusimaa is considering charges in some of the criminal offences committed in the case.

Media release