Published 23 March 2023 at 14.33
Domestic. Today, two people are being charged at the Gothenburg District Court for extremely serious drug smuggling. The defendants are linked to the 2020 smuggling of 1.2 tonnes of cannabis resin hidden in fake marble slabs – the single largest cannabis seizure made by Swedish customs.
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It the current indictment concerns the smuggling of another half a ton of cannabis resin worth over SEK 50 million in the street market.
The suspects were revealed through encrypted material from the international operation Trojan Shield.
In November 2020, the Customs Service seized 1,200 kilos of cannabis resin hidden among marble slabs that arrived in Gothenburg by container from Morocco. The drugs were hidden in fake marble slabs among real marble slabs that arrived with three containers to a company in Kungälv. The containers were taken out for customs control in the Port of Gothenburg, where the narcotics were discovered. The customs agency carried out reconnaissance on the delivery and found that the containers with contents were re-destined from Kungälv to a company in Kinna.
During a crackdown, representatives of both companies were arrested as well as two more people who handled parts of the smuggled narcotics. Two of the defendants in the case were sentenced to seven years and seven and a half years in prison, respectively, for particularly serious drug smuggling. The value of the seized narcotics amounted to approximately SEK 120 million.
After that, raids were carried out in the international operation Trojan Shield and encrypted material was retrieved which, among other things, concerned the cannabis smuggling of 1,200 kilos. In the material from encrypted Encro and Anom phones, there were also chats that showed that more people have been involved in the smuggling of cannabis from Morocco. In 2022, another person was charged with involvement in this smuggling and he was sentenced to nine years in prison for particularly serious drug crime.
Today two more people are charged with connection to the large seizure of 1,200 kilos. The investigation shows that at the beginning of 2020 two more containers of marble were imported from Morocco to Gothenburg to the same recipients as those who were sentenced for 1,200 kilos of cannabis. There are suspicions that the containers contained half a ton of cannabis resin. Via the encrypted chats Encro and SKY-ECC, information has been obtained which claims that there was 508 kilos of cannabis resin among the marble imported at the beginning of 2020.