Sanctions | Thousands of drones were illegally taken across the eastern border from Finland – Customs: Operations were managed from Russia

Information were significantly clarified in the criminal case investigated by customs, where it suspects that two Finnish companies exported products subject to EU sanctions to Russia.

Customs said on Tuesday that it was a case where the products ended up in Russia, even though they had been cleared for export to Kazakhstan.

Now it turned out that this is how 3,500 drones also ended up in Russia. Their value was two million euros. Similarly, last spring, according to customs’ suspicions, devices classified as defense equipment, which are used to stop drones, also ended up there. These devices, on the other hand, were worth more than 350,000 euros.

At the center of the investigation are two Finnish companies, which customs suspects of more than thirty exports or export companies under the headings of regulation crime and the crime of export of defense equipment. They also contained, among other things, microcontrollers and semiconductor components.

Operating model according to customs, it was that one of the companies has operated as a procurement company whose task has been to buy products subject to sanctions, and the other company has operated as a forwarder of goods to Russia. There are references to the supervisory director Hannu Sinkkonen according to the fact that the activity was managed and financed from Russia.

According to Sinkkonen, there is confidential information in the case and he cannot, for example, characterize what kind of drones it was. Customs cannot know whether they ended up on the Ukrainian fronts.

Both drones and their countermeasures have become very familiar in the war in Ukraine.

STT reported in September that the district court of Itä-Uusimaa imprisoned the company’s CEO Gabriel Teminin. The companies are Luminor oy and Siberica oy. The case will soon move to prosecution. In total, six people are suspected in the case.

The European Union has imposed extensive sanctions on Russia after Russia invaded Ukraine.