Harju County Court handed both Oleg Martovoi, 55 and Eduard Kosljakov, 46, nine-year sentences, while Timofei Solomatov, received a six-and-a-half-year sentence.

Accomplice Aleksei Karpov, 53, was jailed for five years, while 42-year-old Aivar Tartu was handed a five-year sentence, deemed to run concurrently with a 13 years, 11 month sentence he had already received.

Prosecutors had sought a 14-year sentence for Martovoi, and 12 years for Kosjalov. The sentences handed to the other defendants tallied with what the public prosecutor had requested, BNS reports.

The Office of the Prosecutor General charged the men with being members of a criminal organization involved in handling narcotic substances and illicit alcohol, with the main defendants having formed a crime ring covering tbe Baltic States and Scandinavia in September 2016, the office said.

State Prosecutor Sigrid Nurm said after the court ruling on Tuesday that the court had sent a clear signal that organized crime in punishable in Estonia even if some of the crimes are committed outside Estonia and the activities may be disguised as legal businesses.

Nurm said: "A criminal association, which by its very existence threatened the legal order and the legal economic environment, was unequivocally strongly condemned in the form of lengthy prison sentences with the court ruling today. The prosecutor's office is pleased that the court also confiscated a large amount of the criminal proceeds. Today, the state once again sent a clear message that committing crimes does not pay off in Estonia."

Another two who had been charged, Sergei Martovoi, Oleg Martovoi's older brother, and Marko Suvaoja had entered a plea deal in 2018 which saw them receive sentences which were a combination of real jail time and suspended sentence.

Yet another of the accused, Albert Tsoi, had entered a plea deal which saw him sentenced to five years and two months, earlier this year.

Oleg Martovoi and seven other men were detained in March 2018, by the Central Criminal Police.

The court also confiscated slightly over €20,000 from Sergei Martovoi and approximately €12,000 from Suvaoja.

As is standard legal practice in Estonia, the investigation was led by the prosecutor's office; the Central Criminal Police and the Police and Border Guard Board's North Prefecture criminal department conducted the investigation.

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