Published 21 June 2024 at 15.22
Domestic. Customs has busted a drug gang with connections to Sundsvall that engaged in extensive smuggling and distribution of narcotic tablets from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. A consistent approach has been for the suspects to pick up contraband packages using stolen or forged ID documents.
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On Thursday, three people were charged with, among other things, particularly serious drug smuggling and particularly serious drug crime. One of the suspects runs a company that offers care and supported housing for young people and adults with substance abuse problems.
– During the course of the investigation, my employees have reacted to the fact that a company that is supposed to treat and provide support to drug addicts, in the facility itself has been a hub for extensive smuggling and distribution of narcotic preparations, says Miriam Monsell, who is head of the investigation group at the Swedish Customs Service's criminal department North.
In February 2024, the Swedish Customs Service's detectives follow a car whose driver has picked up a large package from a post office in Söderhamn. During his journey south, the driver stops and throws away the package's address label. After wandering around the Gävletrakten, he parks at a parking pocket on the E4 north of Älvkarleby with his hazard lights on. A police patrol is called and talks to the driver, a 35-year-old man who is behaving strangely and speaking incoherently. A toiletry bag with 240,200 Danish kroner and needles is found in the car. In the trunk is the package that was picked up in Söderhamn. It contains 40,000 narcotic tablets. In the car, there is also a soft drink can with a shredded stolen driver's license.
It will be the final phase of extensive reconnaissance work that will begin in December 2023 when the Customs Service discovers two shipments from Poland with 22,500 narcotic tablets each. The packages are addressed to fake recipients at two different assisted living facilities in Sundsvall.
– We then start a closer collaboration with the postal agents who sound the alarm when suspicious shipments arrive so we can spy on those who pick up the packages. Then we will see that one of these is the owner of the company that runs assisted living facilities in Sundsvall, says Miriam Monsell in a press release.
The customs investigation leads to three people being linked to 13 shipments of a total of 455,149 narcotic-classified tablets from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. In addition to the 35-year-old owner of supported housing, there is a 36-year-old man who works at a youth home and a 34-year-old man from southern Sweden who was arrested on February 8 in central Sundsvall. Packages with a total of 186,489 narcotic tablets were found in his car. He also had a forged driver's license on him.
– Stolen and forged driver's licenses are something that comes up again in our investigation. We have discovered six cases where completely innocent people have had their identities stolen by this league, says Miriam Monsell.
In total, the Customs Service has managed to link 72 shipments in 2023 from Poland and the Czech Republic to different addresses and recipients via postal history . In most cases, the sender has been the same one who sent the seized shipments that contained narcotic-classified tablets. 38 of these 72 shipments were addressed to addresses where the accused 35-year-old's company has had subsidized apartments.
On Thursday, the three men were charged with, among other things, extremely serious drug smuggling and extremely serious drug crime. All three suspects deny wrongdoing and refuse to say who the other people are who have participated in chat conversations where deliveries of and payment for narcotics have been settled.
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