46-Year-Old Man Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison for Drug Smuggling

A 46-year-old man was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Thursday for smuggling large quantities of narcotics into Denmark.

The verdict was delivered in a confession case at the Aarhus Court.

The 46-year-old admitted to a judge that he had been the central figure in a series of smuggling operations involving a total of 148 kilograms of cocaine and 1,500 kilograms of hash from February 2020 to March 2021.

The 46-year-old used a total of five different users on encrypted communication services SKY-ECC and EncroChat to plan and coordinate the smuggling of cocaine and hash from the Netherlands to Denmark. The narcotics were largely smuggled in Dutch trucks and then delivered to accomplices in the 46-year-old’s network in Denmark before being further distributed in Denmark, primarily in East Jutland.

In March of this year, the 46-year-old was jailed in absentia and internationally sought. He was later arrested in the Netherlands, with the arrest carried out in cooperation with Dutch police. At the same time, another 9 men were arrested in larger coordinated operations in Germany and Denmark. One person, who has since been sentenced to 11 years in prison, was arrested a few days later.

A total of ten individuals have been remanded in custody in the case, which was investigated by the police’s National Special Crime Unit (NSK).

Regarding Thursday’s verdict, Special Prosecutor at NSK, Jacob Gent, said:

-“The 46-year-old mastermind has been a central figure in Denmark for a considerable period when it comes to the smuggling, particularly of cocaine, and he has made strenuous efforts to conceal the criminal activities. It is thanks to a long and targeted investigation that he has now fully admitted his role in the network. With an extraordinarily long prison sentence, the severity of the case has been underscored.”

The court confiscated proceeds totaling six million kroner, including cryptocurrency, equity in several properties, and balances in accounts.