Stena Line employees indicted in smuggling ring

At lunchtime on October 5, two men were arrested after receiving a drug load at Stena Line’s Germany terminal in Gothenburg.

By then, the group was already on the trail, with both reconnaissance and secret phone tapping.

Seven people in their 20s and 30s are now being charged with extremely serious drug smuggling. A man and a woman are also charged with aiding and abetting, for having handled large sums of money connected to the narcotics and for having rented a used car.

Two men in the group were employed at Stena Line.

One of them was involved in loading the narcotics on board the Stena ferry in Kiel, for onward travel to Gothenburg, according to the indictment.

– From what I remember about this, NN said that he had been in Germany and watched football, says a colleague who met him when he went on via the vehicle ramp in Germany.

A Stena employee brought narcotics on board the ship, according to the investigation.

Photo: The police

Here, a transfer takes place from car tires in Gothenburg to a blue car, according to the investigation.

Photo: The police

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“They had pass cards”

The other man who was employed by Stena was on site at the terminal in Gothenburg when the ferry arrived.

– They came in with the ferry just like usual and got off the ferry just like usual. Then after all the passengers and the cars are gone, these two men have boarded the ferry again. They have access cards. They get in there, and load the narcotics that were hidden inside the car tires into one of the cars, says prosecutor Marie Andersson.

In that way, they could avoid the customs duty, according to the prosecutor.

When the police raided the men, 39 kilograms of amphetamine and 13 kilograms of hashish were found in a suitcase and a sports bag in one of the cars.

“Then I go home with the dog food,” writes one employee to the other. He himself says it’s a code word for booze.
Photo: **The police**

One employee instructs the other upon arrival in Gothenburg, according to the investigation.

Photo: **Police preliminary investigation**

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“They wanted help from me”

One of the men says he thought it was liquor they took out of the boat. His image is that the colleague he met was “a really nice and healthy old man”, he says in questioning.

That colleague says that he was threatened by others to take part in the smuggling, because of his employment at the shipping company.

– I was contacted because I worked where I worked, and they wanted help from me. I didn’t want that, but then I got threats from them and then after a while I got a home visit. Then I was driven away in a car to an industrial area and was badly beaten there, he says in questioning.

The drug load was found in a car driven by one of the employees.
Photo: **Police preliminary investigation**

The drugs found in the duffel bag in the car.
Photo: **Police preliminary investigation**

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The case stands out

But according to prosecutor Marie Andersson, there was a common criminal plan.

Four of the other accused men have, according to the indictment, gone to the Netherlands, among other places, where they obtained the narcotics and then drove it to Kiel for further transport.

– I mean that this is part of an activity that was carried out in an organized form where there was an extensive trade in narcotics, says Marie Andersson.

It is both the amount of narcotics and the fact that two of the defendants worked at the ferry company that make the case stand out.

Marie Andersson says that she is not aware of any previous cases, but that it is likely not the first time that employees have participated in smuggling.

– It will be extremely difficult to detect. I don’t think it would have been discovered if it wasn’t for the fact that we already had an ongoing investigation with intelligence against this group.