The substance, which had a strength of 90 per cent, was attached to the ship Nordloire which came from Brazil. The cocaine seizure is the largest ever made in Western Norway. Photo: Coast Guard / NTB
Of NTB | 06.05.2024 22:43:56
Crime and justice: The defendants are four men and one woman between the ages of 26 and 46. Three of the men plead not guilty, while one, a 26-year-old man, partially pleads guilty. The woman has not made a decision on criminal guilt and questions her own alleged role.
– The man thought it was hash he was going to pick up. Not cocaine, says lawyer Øystein Storrvik, who defends the 26-year-old, to The online newspaper.
The police, Customs and the Coast Guard took action on the night of 13 April last year against a vehicle in connection with a ship that came sailing from Brazil to Husnes. 150 kilograms of cocaine were found in the trunk.
The seizure is the largest ever made in Western Norway – and one of several larger cocaine seizures in Norway in 2023.
Among other things, the five are charged under section 79c of the Criminal Code, also called the “mafia section”. The prosecution believes that it is an organized network from Albania.
– Paragraph 79c is used here because it concerns an organized criminal network, in this case an Albanian network. The requirement in this legal provision is that there must be at least three people, and here there are five, says the prosecutor in the case, State Attorney Benedicte Hordnes.
Six people were initially charged, but the sixth person, who was a man in his 40s, died in prison. The case against him has therefore been dismissed.
Ten days have been set aside for the case in Hordaland district court.
(© NTB)