HELSINKI: Finnish Customs officials stated that they had confiscated a record volume of amphetamines. The total volume of methamphetamines was 187.8 kilos in 2014, higher than the previous year.
Last year, the Customs Board recorded 9789 drug-smuggling related crimes, nearly 10 percent less than a year earlier. Customs officials believe that the smaller figure is primarily due to the fact that small deliveries of illicit substances were often handled administratively without formal preliminary criminal investigations. However the number of cases classified as aggravated narcotic offences rose last year to 300 from 202 the previous year. Foreign citizens accounted for 50 percent of those convicted of these crimes.
Overall, Customs figures for 2014 show a total of 2211 drugs violations, down from 3276 the year before.Customs authorities seized more than 58,000 tablets of MDMA (ecstasy), nearly triple the previous year’s total of less than 21,000.Seizures of hash dropped from 93 to 22 kilos. Meanwhile just over 150 kilos of leaf marijuana was confiscated, about the same amount as in 2013.
Most illegal drugs came into Finland from the Baltic States and Western Europe, as well as Russia. Most were smuggled in through Helsinki’s harbours and airport. Finland is also still being used as a transit country for controlled substances, the Customs Board notes.
