Two middle-aged men of Icelandic residency have been taken into custody on suspicion of having participated in smuggling a large amount of cocaine, ecstasy pills, amphetamines and steroids to the country in a container arriving by sea from the Netherlands.
A container vessel. Archive photo by Páll Stefánsson.
“It is a large amount but [the specifics] haven’t been mentioned to the defendants yet and so we cannot discuss them,” Karl Steinar Valsson, senior officer of the Reykjavík Metropolitan Police’s drug department, told Morgunbladid.
He added that the investigation is extensive and has taken many months. This is the largest drug smuggling case in Iceland so far this year. It isn’t clear whether further arrests can be expected.
The younger of the defendants, who is in his forties, was arrested upon arrival to the country on Saturday night and sentenced to custody until November 11.
The other suspect, who is in his fifties, was arrested on October 10 following a search by police and customs of a container imported to the country.
The younger man has a criminal history but not the older one, which is considered rather unusual in such a case, Valsson said.
ESA
