Legal proceedings Dutch men bring huge numbers of drugs among flower deliveries – Longest sentences handed down in one of Finland’s largest drug cases

Helsinki On Thursday, the district court sentenced long prison sentences to one of Finland’s largest drug trafficking groups. Two Dutch men organized large quantities of drugs in Finland among their native florists and houseplants.

The drugs they imported ended up in other Finnish drug offenses. According to the police, a large part of the substances in the massive Katiska drug complex came to Finland in flower trucks from the Netherlands.

The district court convicted the 48-year-old as the main perpetrators of the flower truck trial Jan Kromhoutin and 45 years old Johannes Van Egmondin. According to the judgment, Dutch men brought drugs and medicines to Finland more than 15 times in 2018–2020.

Among other things, about 15 kilograms of cocaine, more than 240 kilograms of amphetamine, more than 145,000 ecstasy tablets, 19,000 lsd patches, more than 52 kilograms of hashish, more than 250 kilograms of marijuana and many other substances were imported.

Dutch duo The role was to organize drugs in Finland and deliver them to recipients here, but there have also been other people in the drug organization above them. The duo had no control over the substances they transported.

Jan Kromhout and Johannes Van Egmond would normally have been sentenced to a maximum of 13 years in prison, but the court lowered the sentence because they helped solve their crimes.

Kromhout was sentenced to 11 years in prison and Van Egmond to ten and a half years in prison.

Three other men were also convicted by the court as key players. 35 years old Joonas Peltonen received a 12-year prison sentence. 30 year old Feliciano Angelo Armando De Snoo and 39 years old Jani Petteri Laaksonen was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison.

The sentences of De Snoon and Peltonen were also commuted because they contributed to the survival of the crimes.

The district court imposed less severe penalties on numerous other persons.

In Finland police gained decisive evidence of a tangle of flower trucks when authorities in Central Europe had access to data on mobile phones used by the underworld.

A company called Encrochat had promised secure connections to its users, but police were able to monitor communications in real time in the spring of 2020. In France, for example, 90 percent of users belonged to the underworld, according to police.

The encrochat has been exploited by, among others, the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, several organized criminal groups in Europe and at least some of the defendants in the Katiska drug case in Finland.