Ends up the usual road for drugs – so the customs smugglers

Five pairs of glances are reviewing the cars that drive off the ferry in the Western Harbor in Helsinki. A couple of them belong to the seven -year -old labrador, the drug dog Toma. She has a year left for retirement, but today there is full focus on jobs.

Last year, the customs seized a total of 2,052 kilos of drugs, which is almost twice as much than the year before.

On average it is smuggled In about two kilos of drugs per day through the ports in Helsinki. It is mainly about cocaine, hash, marijuana and amphetamine. Measured in the number of crimes, Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is the main smuggling route, but in terms of volume, the largest amount of drugs comes in via Helsinki ports.

« We see a clear increase in particular cocaine and marijuana, » says Rebecca Majuri, customs official and shift manager with twenty years of experience.

Customs officials wave to a man. The driver smiles a little as he turns off the driving file, parks and rises something reluctantly out of the car.

The smugglers hide drugs in trucks, passenger cars and luggage – sometimes even in the body.

The couriers vary in age and gender, but common to them is often a difficult life situation where they have become victims of threats or extortion.

– The variation makes it difficult to pin down the couriers. We have not seen minors yet, but otherwise we see people from all social groups, says Majuri.

During her 20 years on customs, she has seen the world change.

– The world has become raw, the volumes that are smuggled in are larger, and the criminals use harder hold of each other.

She will return to the work With cross -border crime, however, her dream profession is.

– There is something very touching about meeting these people who have become couriers. Many people understand exactly what they have done and that they have to bear their responsibility, but their anxiety is tangible.

The profession has given her a humility for life.

– Here you get rid of the attitude that everyone who commits crime is immoral or evil. Very rarely does it have to do with a person’s other character that for one reason she has made an unfortunate choice of life.

The risk of ethnic profiling is a recurring issue within the security profession.

A notable case took place in December 2019, when customs officials in Vaasa harbor stopped six players in the VPS football team, when the team arrived by ferry from Umeå. Everyone who was stopped was black. The Discrimination Ombudsman noted on the Customs actions and the Customs has since collaborated with DO to train his staff in equal treatment.

In addition to the risk of ethnic profiling, there are employees who use the rule of being in many security profession.

– We all treat equally and have no one in the staff who act aggressively or dominant. Then you don’t get someone to talk. Everyone is based on their own character in the meeting with the customers, says Rebecca Majuri.

Revealing drug couriers is often a question About intuition and experience. It is about noticing a deviation from the overall picture.

– The ability to observe people’s behavior develops over time. Often it is subconscious observations that react to a certain person, says Majuri.

The customs officials have a few seconds to assess whether they should act, whether the passengers they review come by car, truck or pedestrian.

– We have to decide if everything fits together. When we initiate a conversation with a human being, we must decide on history is an organic part of human life, or if there is something that feels pasted.

The staff manages in Finnish, English, Russian, German and Estonian.

Now the control of the smaller passenger car is ready. The man nods, receives his ID documents and drives on. The smile on the lips signals relief.

Soon, the customs officials show a motorhome to turn in. A middle -aged man politely gets out of the car and tries to disarm the situation.

– Nice dog! says the man in English.

But dog driver Jukka Malinen and Toma are not in the mood for small talk. The dog jumps weight into the camper and lets the nose walk along all the surfaces.

The camper is waved away after a while. The man is on his way to Norway. Jukka Malinen says the work is like laying puzzles.

– It’s something of a lottery win when we find drugs. To a large extent it is about luck. All puzzle pieces must be right.

One of the puzzle pieces is Toma, one of the customs’ about 50 drug dogs.

Once, a client, whom the customs calls them, tried to kick the dog, but most people behave kindly towards it. According to Jukka Malinen, the challenge is rather that people get too close with the dog or try to distract it.

He mentions an incident a few months ago, when a person grabbed the dog’s head with both hands and tried to yellow with it.

– It turned out that another person nearby tried to smuggle in drugs and that the man who was gold with Toma did a rail maneuver.

The change was 6.2 kilos of amphetamine, which is the largest that Toma has found. In total, the customs seized 237 kilos of amphetamine in 2024, which is significantly more than the year before that. Amphetamine is smuggled to Finland mainly from the Netherlands and Germany.

Amphetamine is the most Using stimulating drug in Finland, according to wastewater surveys made by the Institute for Health and Welfare. According to the institute, the use of amphetamine has increased in several major cities and reached the highest level ever by 2024.

Being able to stop some of the drugs before reaching new users feels good, says team leader Rebecca Majuri.

– But this is not a solo work, and here are no lonely stars. We cooperate and support each other.

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