Police and Customs uncover large doping import ring

Date: 02-12-2002 Posted by: Anabolic Info TeamFinland

Together with the Finnish Customs, the National Bureau of Investigation (Finland's central criminal police) has uncovered a large criminal gang suspected of having smuggled substantial quantities of different kinds of doping substances and anabolic steroids from Russia to Finland, and onwards to Sweden. Two Russian and three Finnish men have been arrested on suspicion of illegal importing and distribution of doping materials.

Thousands of ampoules and tens of thousands of hormone and doping products have been confiscated. Several confiscations as well as arrests of suspected offenders have taken place between late September and November this year, both in Finland and in Sweden. Police believe that illegal substances have been smuggled to Sweden on numerous occasions. The gang's main stash of doping substances and paraphernalia was found near the city of Jyväskylä in Central Finland. Some of the arrested gang members also live in the city or its vicinity.

The gang has operated since 1999, and its activities are now under investigation by the Jyväskylä unit of the National Bureau of Investigation together with the Customs office in Tampere. Sweden's central criminal police have also assisted in the investigation. According to Deputy Director Hannu Sinkkonen from the Tampere Customs office, illegal doping substances have been brought to Finland on several different occasions across the Russian border.

The operation of the Finnish-Russian criminal league has been extensive and well organised. This is one of the largest doping smuggling ring disclosures in Finland in recent years, and is a result of effective cooperation between the Police and the Customs, reported Sinkkonen. According to Chief Inspector Pauli Huuskonen from the Jyväskylä unit of the NBI, seriously large sums of money are involved in this type of activity. "The monetary value of the stock at one of the hormone warehouses we raided is between EUR 50,000-100,000. One can only guess what the street value of these substances would have been", Huuskonen explains. The products classified as doping agents have mainly been aimed at the weight training and body building circuits in Finland and Sweden. The confiscated drugs are such that they are of little or no use for endurance athletes such as cross-country skiers, for instance. "Skiers have nothing to do with this", believes Huuskonen.

In conjunction with the investigation the police also uncovered a number of empty hormone packages. According to Huuskonen this suggests that the gang has been selling hormone products that they have packed themselves. "Such products can be rather contaminated", warns Huuskonen.