The Helsinki District Court reached a decision in a closed trial on Saturday, 20 July to remand a suspect who is believed to be a leading figure of Finland’s Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. He was detained on suspicion of a string of aggravated drug offenses that dated back to the start of 2018 and continued until the present.
The leader of the criminal investigation characterized the case as unprecedented in its scope.
“There are elements of the case that make it quite exceptional, to say the least. Perhaps even in terms of all of Finnish criminal history,” said chief inspector Kaarle Lehmus.
“We are talking about a drug that has been classified as very dangerous. For investigative reasons, I can’t say anything about the quality or quantity or provide any more details,” he said.
The news agency STT reports that the suspect was known to be a leader of the Hells Angels in Finland, but investigators were unable to confirm his current links to the organisation.
Friday rulings perhaps related
On Friday, the Helsinki court remanded several other suspects on suspicion of aggravated drug offenses, among other charges. The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports that some of the suspected crimes from the Friday case occurred in the same time frame of the crimes associated with the case heard on Saturday.
The Netherlands became the first country in the world to completely ban the Oultaw Motorcycle Clubs. Germany has banned local chapters in the past, but not the entire organisation. The United States Department of Justice considers the club to be an organized crime syndicate.
The case will now proceed to the prosecution, which is suspected to file charges in the case in early 2020.
Source: YLE UUTISET