70 people operating as professional thieves in Tallinn

Photo: palmbeachpost.com

Northern prefect Kristian Jaani and criminal police chief Urmet Tambre cover nuances of last year's crime and Estonia-related human trafficking.

-Last year, the police was forced to substantially review its work, Estonia also having to prepare for the refugee crisis rising in Europe.

Kristian Jaani: True. The jump of immigration and basically a constant round-the-clock movement of immigrants into Europe begun in July 2015. We sensed a real threat of the Via Baltica transit migration channel becoming a reality. We thought that the attraction centres would be Iraqi and Afghan communities in Finland, and the organisers might be the very relatives living there, and acquaintances, with residence permits in Finland. Also, we assessed the emerging threat of criminal world seizing the opportunity to make a profit from services offered to move the people.

The fears were not unfounded. In September, for instance, in Old City Harbour of Tallinn we apprehended 11 citizens of Afghanistan who had been on their way from Central Europe on way to Finland. We have held four transporters of illegal entrants, one of whom was convicted in court. One is still under arrest.

-Who are these four human traffickers?

Jaani: These are not inhabitants of Estonia. In two occasions, the organisers were men of Iraqi background residing in Finland and Sweden. In one occasion, it may have been the case or organised and covert transport of people in order to make money. The suspect is from Holland, but the man is also of Iraqi background. He is under arrest at the moment and the proceeding is still underway.  

-So therefore the main police effort is around Old City Harbour?

Jaani: Basically yes, as the port has eight million passengers pass thru in a year and in a mass like this is it easy to conceal illegal activity. The Old City Harbour is like a bottleneck, generally, for all illegal activity trying to move on to Finland and Sweden. Likewise, we may not neglect the ports in Paldiski.

-I have heard a number – last year, stolen goods for the worth of about €2.5m was seized in Northern Estonian ports. What all are they carrying?

Jaani: At the end of the year, in cooperation with Tax and Customs Board, we discovered 7.6 million illegal cigarettes in the trailer of a truck headed onto a ferry Liverpool Seaways in Paldiski, on its way to Kapellskär, Sweden..

Urmet Tambre: We seized stolen cars, boats, and boar engines. Generally we do all we can to seize the stuff this side of the sea. Then we are spared the procedure of returning it, afterwards.

Jaani: We have gotten a container full of bicycles.

-A container?

Jaani: Yes, the van was filled with rather expensive bikes. The terrain-bikes were hot stuff in the summer. We did not apprehend the transporters of the bikes potentially stolen at the port lacking the assurance. But as confirmation came from Finland to our doubts, colleagues from Western prefecture held the vehicle.

Information exchange with the Finns is super. If anything is stolen in Finland during the night and the owner noticed it, by the morning we have the information.

Tambre: The travelling thieves are still around. Let me bring an example: a group begins its tour in Romania, takes something in every country, and goes back home via Scandinavia. We saw BMWs were stolen navigation systems from consoles. We had three-four incidents, we caught none. A few days later, the same reports begun to come from Finland, a couple of days later from Sweden. That’s how you see a specific object for theft moving along the geographical map.

-What is stolen from homes?

Tambre: Gold, generally, but from houses under construction instruments are taken, and building material. One thief was building himself a house and he needed boilers etc. The thieves are no longer interested in used TV sets and other tech, for  one can’t drag it from an apartment window to a buy-up place.

-You got a profile of the professional thieves. How many are there?

Tambre: About 70 in Tallinn and Harju County.

-All active and at liberty?

Jaani: At the moment, half of them are in prison.

Tambre: But this is the kind of table that needs a daily update.

-What is the table good for, for the police?

Tambre: This way, we know the handwriting of every definite thief. When a door was opened like a can of food, then basically we had to go check our table and find a guy with such a handwriting, and as we saw that he had been released from prison just some two days before, we got clarity.  

Naturally, the thieves do all they can to alter their pattern of breaking in. And they are trying to avoid the method which led to their arrest the last time.

About the funnier incidents... If thieves have gotten caught due to footprints, they will fear these prints very much. To conceal their footprints, they will buy boots several sizes smaller. Detecting a child’s size footprints on the location and knowing it was not a child who was stealing, all we have to do is see who has been caught with the help of a footwear print and check these. If the thief then is caught with boots several sizes smaller, it’s a clear deal.

Also, they try to tape them over so as to avoid DNA traces. But for us it makes not much difference what measures the thief has used. We have experienced apartment thefts investigators, who will catch them sooner or later.

Jaani: If we know that only two or three thieves are able to open a certain type of a door lock, we can focus on them. If we know how they operate, we are able to warn people. For instance, we are warning people not to keep windows open.

Tambre: The whole summer we had these problems, actually. People think that no-one gets in through the gap left for ventilation, but a thief gets it fully open easily with his shoulder.

Jaani: Increasingly, we must interfere before the crime gets committed. Prevention is vital. Take for instance the successfully started prevention programme for young drug users, «Puhas tulevik» (Clean Future). Last year, 27 young initial users passed the programme. If all goes well, we have 27 healthy people more in the future. Ideally.

Or take another project (SPIN), where risky youth are directed to football training sessions. Last year, 180 youth from Lasnamäe and North-Tallinn participated. A very simple thing, but keeps these guys away from problems during that time.

Tambre: It is the very cooperation with people which helps the police to successfully solve incidents. Take this simple notice: an individual let us know that there was this suspicious man in a red coat standing at his gate. Nothing happens with the one who lets us know, but two streets down at the same time a house was emptied. Every morning, our analyst goes through such reports and compares if a crime was committed nearby at the same time. As we put two and two together, we get the picture. Such calls are vital.

-Last year, certain interest groups attempted to launch a media debate on cannabis, rather ending up debating with themselves.

Jaani: The Police underlined its stand. The handling and use of narcotic substance is a broader problem.

-Taking it from here, a most important unit of yours is the drugs department, arresting hundreds of people yearly …

Tambre: Last year, we detained over 300 suspects in drug crimes.

-That’ll be one a day, broadly, and the situation seems to grow no better. With the future in mind: how many of these were minors?

Jaani: 14.

-We hear they caught an individual in a school with 30 grams of cannabis for sale.

Tambre: These are single cases when somebody takes substances along to school, as teachers are aware of drug problems. Thanks to the operation of out unit, we no longer have this situation with dealers circling a school and the young people having his number. All goes through a mediator to mediator to mediator till they end of with the dealer. But the people are unaware that with the passing of each contact they will commit a crime, being involved in mediation. 

-The pickpockets are developing a new handwriting. While they used to hunt wallets from pockets, now they are after whole coats and mantles in bars, with the purses.

Jaani: Yes, this is the new trend, to take the whole coat. This is easier and faster. The thief will not need to fumble around, but just leaves with the whole thing. To avoid the thefts, we have arranged roundtables with the barkeepers to explain what the bar can do, and what the security staff might watch.  

-Talking about violence: last year there were these several youth gangs in various districts of Tallinn, beating up people just for the fun of it. The incidents were in Nõmme, Mustamäe, city centre. How far did you reach with these?  

Tambre: Solved. The worst of these was a cell of a former gang. We are trying to bring these youth back to the society fast, the goal is not jailing them for seven years and let them see about their life afterwards. We must help them back as fast as possible.

Jaani: The young people did a lot of bad stuff. But we need to think about how to get them back into normal society. So that it would not go downhill for them after the punishment.

Tambre: This gang mentality is the worst of all. If the overall rule with robbery is the item the criminal are after, with a gang this is secondary. This is a kind of a game – who can get the victim down with one hit; once the individual is down on the ground, even the weakest will go try their hand. The victim is on the ground, but they keep on hitting. Only afterwards they see if anything could be taken.

This gang hierarchy is very bad. I am ever so glad we caught them all. Whoever sees such an attack must rapidly call for help. The best is call 112.