A 40-year-old Swede was sentenced to 15 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 euros, who sat on the bench of the Three-Member Criminal Appeal Court of Thessaloniki on the charge that he organized and directed the importation of 190 kilograms of cocaine from Latin America to his homeland. After a multi-day hearing, the judges found him guilty without recognizing him as a mitigating factor. Under these circumstances he returned to the prisons where he has been held for the last 25 months.

It was August 2021, when Greek police arrested him in Nea Fokaia, Halkidiki, where he was vacationing with his Greek wife. He had a pending European Arrest Warrant issued by the Swedish authorities seeking his extradition for the acts of cocaine trafficking and money laundering. The Swedish request was accepted by the Council of Appeals of Thessaloniki, but against the decision the 40-year-old appealed to the Supreme Court, which partially accepted his appeal.

In particular, the Supreme Court of the country ordered his extradition to Sweden, but only for money laundering, considering that the drug-related acts of management and organization (subsequently) were carried out in Greek territory. For this reason, he was prosecuted by the First Instance Prosecutor’s Office of Thessaloniki and after his confession, in March 2022, he was deemed a temporary prisoner (with the 18 months expiring in the following days).

According to the indictment, the 40-year-old is involved in two cases of cocaine trafficking: the first in September 2020 with the amount trafficked approaching 70 kg and the second two months later with the amount of the drug at 120 kg. In both cases, the drugs were loaded in containers and discarded from ships in waters south of Sweden (in the first case, due to weather conditions, the boxes broke and the drug was collected by the competent Swedish authorities).

According to the same case file, the defendant coordinated the above transfers from Greece but also other European countries where he traveled (e.g. Germany, Denmark, etc.), making continuous telephone contacts and consultations – via the Internet and via phone applications – with his accomplices . The latter were sentenced by Swedish courts to prison sentences which they are serving in their home country.

During the evidentiary process, two Swedish police officers who were referred to the investigations of their country’s prosecuting authorities testified as prosecution witnesses. In his statement, the 40-year-old, father of two minor children, denied any involvement in illegal trafficking, denying the accusations, a position he maintained from the first moment of his arrest. According to his lawyer, the sentence – which he is asked to serve in Greek prisons – is one and he cannot be given another sentence for the same case in his home country.