International drug biz chief: it was a setup

Photo: Corbis/Scanpix

«I am absolutely innocent in this issue, really,» says Jaak Tarvis, an Estonian claimed to have pulled chief strings of Finland’s topmost drug story of the year.

No surprise. The world’s jails are filled with crooks who claim innocence. Jaak Tarvis is no exception. With his story, Postimees was captivated by another nuance – a person present, from start to finish, at the months long court process in Finland, told the journalist in a private conversation that the others aside «this Tarvis was jailed for no reason in this case». The «others», at that, are acquaintances of the one who said so. For him, Mr Tarvis is a nobody. The person had no reason whatsoever to protect Mr Tarvis. Therefore, I wasn’t surprised to get a phone call from Riihimäki prison after having written an article on drug business by Mr Tarvis and the biker gang Bandidos.

«Hi, I am Jaak Tarvis,» started the man.

I cut him off at half word, saying I was aware what he had on his mind. I was right. Instead of arguing over the phone, we agreed to meet in Finland.

A couple of days later, I was there, at Riihimäki prison. My partner in conversation still investigated by courts, we were separated by a glass wall during the interview.

Opposite of me, there sat a plain young man, by the look of him. Having worked out in the gym, he did look a lot stronger than on an old police photo. The very Jaak Tarvis who, allegedly, laid the foundation for Estonian criminals’ joint drug business with the Finnish biker gang Bandidos, in Finland. That, at least, is what the court decided a couple of weeks ago, jailing Mr Tarvis for 13 years.

Now, the man claims to be «absolutely innocent in this issue». What does he have to say?

The Finnish court judgement, judging you guilty, is 150 pages long. Therein, it is laid out in details that there was drug business in Finland between Bandidos and Estonians, and that it was pulled by you and your good friend Maarius Mitt. Do you claim there was no drug business, at all?

No, surely there was this drug business going on and the people sued were somehow related to it. Only I am not related to all that at all. My guilt is that, from childhood, I’m the best friend of Maarius Mitt.

So Mitt is guilty and you are not?

I would not like to talk about Mitt’s part; he sits in this same jail here and you can talk to him yourself. I want to tell you that I was just plain pulled into this for no reason. That’s what the people said who were sued, and their defendants.

It is evident in the judgement that the accusation is based on sayings by one person. He talks a lot about Mitt, but very little about you.

Yes, we only indirectly know one another, as we have happened to be at the same parties, in Rapla.

As ordered by Mitt, the young man was supposed to hide drugs in a forest; he panicked from amphetamine use, thought the police would come any minute, and scattered the packages under the trees. For that, Mitt beat him up real bad. The guy went and complained to his brother who works at Rapla police, in mid-level management; together, they went to Central Criminal Police and started to investigate.

True.

During later searches, in the cell of Andrei Jensko – a «bandido» jailed at Helsinki Sörnaisten prison – a piece of paper was found, where you had written the name of the «informer». Jensko said it came into his hands as he worked as janitor, at the jailhouse. It does not matter how it happened to be there, what matters is that you gave him the name. The talk about you not knowing anything, it does not sound credible.

Yes, I wrote it on that piece of paper. There were rumours that the person is sitting in jail, in Finland. There are not so many jails in Finland. I wanted to know if he was at Sörnaisten perhaps; and, as janitor, Jensko was able to move between the different blocks. That’s all. If there had been the variant that the slip of paper was going to be such serious evidence, it would have been destroyed right after it was forwarded.

In the judgement it is deliberated that although the main witness took part in most of the drug deals, which are described in detail, he is not included in the list of the accused. And they promise that he will be punished, in Estonia, for what he has done.

I do not believe that. Nobody does.

I understand that, for losing the packages with drugs, Mitt had threatened to go after his family.

His brother was in the police, understand? He was not so much afraid of Mitt, but of being jailed in Finland. The witnesses did repeatedly describe how he used to see policemen pursuing him, everywhere, and once out of fear he did eat a map with the hiding places. Therefore, probably, he decided to talk, and therefore they did the deal with him.

One thing really strikes the eye, in the court judgement – the accusers have no phone call recorded against you, where you’d be telling how to do drug business.

The only telephone call recordings are my conversations with Teemu Lehter (jailed with Mr Tarvis for 13 years – edit), where we are talking about how to get phones for me, into the prison.

Why phones, in the prison?

That is purely business. On the outside, you buy a phone for €150, in there you sell it for €1,000. The money was paid while at liberty, and part of that was transferred to my prison account, the rest went to my wife and child.

As for me being the only one organising the phones into the jailhouse – that's a joke. I had a couple of these – I think, in one prison, 50 of these are confiscated in a prison. In prisons, telephones are big business; only people who fear they will forfeit a vacation to come if caught – only they do not want a telephone.

Let’s take the facts, then. You were best friends with Mitt, both punished for drug business in Finland. Mitt did his time and, when at liberty, started to organise drug business again. The other party was Bandidos; while in prison, you often communicated with an authority figure of them. It does not sound credible that you did not know anything.

But Mitt also knew these «bandidos» like that, from jail. Jensko was not the only «bandidos» you see, there were more of them and by now some are at liberty. Priit Pajula and Marek Segar dwelled permanently in Finland. Nobody wanted to talk about these issues.

During preliminary investigations, you behaved like the typical criminal – refusing to talk about things.

I had nothing to talk about. While in Tampere at preliminary investigations, they (investigators – R. B.) came to communicate with me after every few days. They offered that if I will talk, I will get a small punishment. But as I had nothing to say, here I am now – the head guy of drug business.

While in prison, you communicated with several drug business participants outside.

But I do know these people. It is boring in jail. If you have a phone, you want to talk to those you know. When my wife cane to see me, I had to organise her whereabouts, in Finland. Who will meet her at the port, at whose place she can change the baby’s diapers afterwards, etc.

These calls just happened to come in the very days you friends outside were moving drugs.

I know. For example: I called Mitt on the Woman’s Day and asked that he would please take flowers to Alu (small town in Rapla County – R. B.) to my wife. Even the positioning of Mitt’s phone shows he did go to Alu. As also confirmed by Mitt’s wife. But the prosecutor claims that my call with Mitt was related to a drug deal.

True, there’s pages of phone calls data in the judgement, but few recordings.

I also believed that they had to have some calls where something would come out at least. And as these were not brought forth in court, I filed a request for these. Now they said there were no recordings at all.

Still, there is the recording where you are saying how Teemu Lehter was caught related to five kilograms of drugs. How does a man, otherwise innocent, have such information?

His lawyer sent his arrest warrant to my email. The amount was included, there. In court, the prosecutor said I could not have a mail like that. But I did. To prove what I said, I even gave policemen my mailbox codes. Later, they claimed they lost the slip of paper somewhere. Then, another investigator came to the jail and asked for the codes again. I felt we were clear about that. But in the court judgement, they still had the same old story.

You do realise that, when it comes to the credibility of the events, you ideally fit in the puzzle?

I agree. Till the guilty-judgement came, I was convinced I would be justified. My lawyer also said that, during the break at the court, they had discussed with seven-eight colleagues that Tarvis will probably be declared innocent as there is no evidence. And then: bang.

By court order, you were sentenced to pay Finnish state €270,000.

Yes, that’s a joke. How should I have that money, having done no drug business? How can it be that while sitting in this jail I have become a kind of a drug boss, but my wife and small child are supporter financially by my father, and my wife goes to the county government for social welfare money?

If it was not you organising purchases of drugs, from Holland – who did that, then?

As evidence, the investigators have an excerpt from an Internet conversation by Teemu Lehter where it is being said there is one Ben i.e. Benjamin, who is sleeping now due to the time-zone difference, but who will settle the matter. Lehter said he got acquainted with Ben while doing time, for drugs, in Peru; and that Ben was a Frenchman. Obviously, finding that Ben was too complicated...