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The Helsinki district court has meted out long jail sentences to 15 men including several Estonians in a drug case connected with the Cannonball biker club, Finnish news agency STT reports.
Finnish court slaps long jail terms on several Estonians in biker clubs-related drug case
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The court on Friday handed out jail terms ranging from five to 13 years. Estonian Rainer Engel, 38, received the longest sentence - 13 years, STT observes. The leader of Cannonball MC, Aki Petter Ronkainen, was sentenced to 10 years.
The agency named the rest of the convicted individuals as Jani Kristian Berghall, Riku Samuel Kasurinen, Pauli Juhani Nieminen, Ilari Valtteri Ojala, Jari-Pekka Miekkaniemi, Argo Asper, Erik Hemming Eklund, Erki-Glen Karu, Kuldar Kungus, Marek Puvi, Mart Saar, Eric Christian Smith and Marek Unojan. Their jail terms ranged from five years and four months to 12 years.
Five of the convicts were members of Cannonball MC.
Four out of the 19 defendants were acquitted, STT said.
Estonian and Finnish police busted earlier this year a large criminal group consisting mainly of Estonians that smuggled narcotics from Central Europe to Finland, acting in conjunction with several biker clubs in Finland. The joint Finnish-Estonian task force investigated eight cases of smuggling of illegal drugs during the period from December 2011 to March 2013. According to the statement of charges, tens of kilograms of amphetamine, hundreds of thousands of tablets of ecstasy and a significant amount of hashish were brought into Finland.
According to the investigation materials the parties that accepted the drugs were persons belonging to the biker clubs Cannonball MC and Bandidos MC, in whose homes and on premises used by whom tens of searches were conducted in both Finland and Estonia. During the search on the premises of Cannonball MC in Finland about 40 illegal firearms and a substantial amount of ammunition, including a hand grenade, were found. Besides two lathes were found that could have been used for the manufacture of components of firearms.
In addition to the above the police have probed alleged complicity of the Helsinki club of Cannonball MC in organized crime. Cannonball MC is suspected also of economic crimes.
Because of the scale of the charges the hearings in the Helsinki district court were divided in two, with drug offenses dealt with in May 2013 and other offenses and matters related to criminal proceeds to be dealt with later.