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Gang smuggled cocaine to Sweden via tiny Ven island

The Local Sweden
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Gang smuggled cocaine to Sweden via tiny Ven island
The island of Ven in the middle of the Öresund Straits is well know as the site of Tycho Brahe's observatory. Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Wikimedia Commons

Five men have been charged for using the small island of Ven in the Öresund Straits, a popular tourist destination, as a halfway point to smuggle drugs from Denmark to Sweden.

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According to charge documents seen by The Local, two of the men used a semi-inflatable RIB speed boat to take 28kg of amphetamines, 3kg of cocaine and 5kg of ecstasy over from Rungsted in Denmark to Ven on January 10th. 
 
A third man then loaded it into a hire car, which one of them took by ferry back to Sweden. 
 
Two of the men on board the RIB in January. Photo: Swedish Customs
 
Of the two other men, one is accused of masterminding the operation and purchasing the RIB for 130,000 kronor the month before the smuggling took place, and the other of driving it from Sweden to Denmark. 
 
"The actions of each and every one of then played a necessary role in committing the crime, through which they in each case, with full knowledge of their deeds, carried out the above drugs smuggling," prosecutor Ulla Karlbrink wrote in the charge sheet submitted to Lund District Court on Tuesday. 
 
The gang were caught after a member of the public informed the local coast guard that men where offloading bags at the harbour in Kyrkbacken, a village on the west of the island. 

The RIB was a powerful speed boat. Photo: Swedish Customs 
 
The coast guard then stopped the boat on its way back to Denmark, and alerted customs authorities and the police, who stopped and searched the car on arrival in Landskrona. 
 
Two of the man are from Halmstad, two from Trollhättan and one from Uddevalla. All five deny committing the crime. 
 
Ven is popular as a cycling destination, and also known as the site of the observatory set up by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe at the Uraniborg castle. 
 
The car contained 8kg of amphetamines, 3kg of cocaine and 5kg of ecstasy. Photo: Swedish Customs 
 
 

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[email protected] 2019/07/27 14:46
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by the disrespect President Trump is showing for the Swedish justice system since he is equally disrespectful of the American justice system.

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