City|Lawsuits
The charges include, for example, aggravated robberies and the preparation of an aggravated crime against life or health.
Helsinki charges have been brought in the district court in a criminal complex related to a street gang in eastern Helsinki. The charges concern, among other things, aggravated drug crimes, attempted murder, attempted aggravated extortion, aggravated robbery, preparation of an aggravated crime against life or health, and threatening to be heard in the administration of justice.
Twenty people are indicted. The suspects are in their twenties. The prosecutor, like the police who investigated the matter, believes that the group suspected of crimes is a street gang.
According to STT’s information, the group has been influential in Eastern Helsinki in the Vuosaari and Rastila area, and its name refers to, among other things, the postal code of that area.
The Helsinki police opened an investigation into the group at a press conference held in March. At that time, it was reported that the suspected crimes took place in 2021-2022. According to the police, the leader of the group is a 24-year-old man. He is still imprisoned and, based on the charges brought, is the suspected main factor in the whole.
At a news conference, police said that members of the group admire and promote a criminal lifestyle on social media, and that gangsta rap music is used as a medium for storytelling. According to the police, the target of the suspected crimes has not been another gang, but the victims have been selected on other grounds.
Police previously said that the suspected drug crimes involve the street trade of cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis. The other prosecutor of the case Perttu Könenen according to the case, we are not talking about very large amounts of drugs.
The suspected attempt at gross extortion is related to demanding a so-called street fine in the spring of 2022. Director of investigations Crista Granroth said in March at a press conference that the 24-year-old main suspect tried to extort a fake debt of several thousand euros from the 26-year-old victim.
When the 26-year-old subject of the blackmail did not pay the required amount of money, the suspect started threatening his close circle with violence, according to the police.
The suspect was in remand custody, but according to the police, despite strict communication restrictions, he managed to communicate with his close circle and thereby give instructions to his gang. According to the police, the man apparently used another person’s prison connection and there has been talk of shooting and killing. In the case, there was a charge of preparing a crime against life or health.
The charge of attempted murder concerns the events of autumn 2021, where the victim was shot in the leg in Eastern Helsinki.
The trial is scheduled to begin in the Helsinki District Court in the second week of May, and several days have been set aside for it.
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