18 Drug Trafficking Groups Busted in 2010
In 2010, authorities convicted 18 drug trafficking groups, four of which were operating transnationally, according to the state's chief prosecutor, Norman Aas.
Police confiscated 383,000 euros worth of illegal drugs during the year.
A 12-member criminal organization, trafficking drugs between Estonia and Russia, smuggled an estimated 38 kilograms of amphetamines, 15 kilograms of hash, 500 ecstasy pills and 5,000 chlorophenylpiperazine tablets.
Aas also described a 10-member group that recruited smugglers from Estonia to transport heroin from Turkey to Italy and Greece, and from Azerbaijan to Italy. Four people were arrested in Italy and Greece in addition to the 10 in Estonia. Police confiscated 16.5 kilograms of heroin in Greece and Italy.
Trafficking large quantities of narcotic or psychoactive drugs can carry a sentence of six years to life in prison in Estonia.
Nine groups were found to be in involved in organized crime last year.