A 26-year-old man is one of five defendants in the cocaine case, which starts in Hordaland District Court on Tuesday 7 May. The man’s defender, Øystein Storrvik, tells Nettavisen that his client partially pleads guilty in the case.
– The man thought it was hash he was going to pick up. Not cocaine, says Storrvik.
Westland’s largest seizure
In April 2023, a ship sailing from Brazil came to Husnes in Kvinnherad municipality with 150 kilograms of cocaine hidden below the waterline. A team with cars, divers and equipment was waiting on land in the small village.
Customs officers, police and the Coast Guard were also waiting in hiding from the smugglers. It resulted in the largest cocaine seizure that has so far been made in Western Norway.
From a Norwegian and European perspective, the seizure joins a growing trend. The EU Drug Monitoring Center (EMCDDA) has warned its member states and says criminal networks will increasingly smuggle cocaine from South America to smaller ports in the EU and neighboring countries where the masterminds feel that port security is lower. In Norway, Kripos has said that the “cocaine tsunami” from South America may hit Norway with force.
According to the indictment, it was a carefully planned and well-coordinated criminal operation that was revealed in Husnes on the night of 13 April last year.
Also read: Director of Customs on the cocaine threat: – We are the first line
Diving for cocaine
The cocaine lot was hidden under the seawater intake on the cargo ship “Nordloire” and it was retrieved by a 46-year-old man using diving equipment. He had the help of a now 33-year-old woman. According to the indictment, she assisted in the prior planning, with the purchase of diving equipment in Bergen, interpretation and by handling the diving equipment before the actual dive. She also transported the 46-year-old to and from.
Two others, a 27-year-old and a 30-year-old, are said to have assisted during the planning and prepared the night in question. They are said to have picked up diving equipment at Gardermoen, transported diving equipment to Husnes and received the drug consignment at the water’s edge.
A fourth man, the 26-year-old who Øystein Storrvik is defending, is said to have assisted in planning and to have helped receive the lot when it was taken out of the water and put into a car he was driving.
Initially, six people were charged and remanded in custody. Sjettemann died in prison in Froland and he is not included in the indictment.
The indictment is drawn up by the public prosecutor following a decision by the public prosecutor.
The police use the “mafia clause”
In the indictment, reference is made to several points in the Criminal Code:
- Section 232 of the Criminal Code (on serious drug offences)
- Section 231 of the Criminal Code on “narcotics offence”
- Section 79 c of the Criminal Code, the so-called mafia section, which allows organized groups of criminals to be punished more severely through an additional sentence of up to six years in prison to the actual sentence. The definition of an organized criminal group according to the law is a “collaboration between three or more persons” who intend to commit a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment for at least 3 years.
In the indictment, it is emphasized that the drug batch in question here, 150 kilos of cocaine, is “a very significant quantity”.
The Husnes seizure: The defendants
MAN, 26: Alleged to have received the drug and put it in a Swedish-registered car. Lawyer Øystein Storrvik states in a message to Nettavisen on 2 May about his client that he “recognizes partial guilt”. The man “thought it was hash he was going to pick up. Not cocaine,” says the defender.
MAN 27: Lawyer Kai-Inge Gavle says this to Nettavisen about his client: “He does not plead guilty. My client believes he has been deceived and led astray. He hopes and believes the court will see this.”
MAN 29: Lawyer Erik Ulvesæter defends the man. To Bergens Tidende last year, the defender stated that they “want to see what the investigation brings in terms of concrete evidence for the accusation”.
WOMAN 33: Lawyer Sidsel Katralen defends the woman. The lawyer stated to Bergens Tidende last year that her client is in a desperate situation with young children in her home country and that she questions her own alleged role in the smuggling case.
MAN 46: The man is accused of having retrieved the cocaine lot using diving equipment. The man’s defender, lawyer Ole Petter Drevland, told Bergens Tidende last year about his client that “the accused diver says he is innocent and wants to be released”.
DEAD MAN: Lawyer Kjell Myrland defended a man in his 40s who had been charged, but who died in Froland prison last year. The death has routinely been investigated, without the result of the investigation being known so far. The charge against the person concerned has been dropped.
– Albanian network
– 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, to Nettavisen.
She says the indictment describes the different roles of the actors, where two have been central in the diving operation itself, one has received the drug and two others have been central in other ways.
Hordnes says that the police in this case have shared information with colleagues internationally, including Albania.
The cargo ship “Nordloire” also came to Kvinnherad on a perfectly legal errand. It is one of the ships that departs from industrial company Hydro’s mines in Brazil with alumina, extracted from the company’s bauxite mines. In Norway, the raw material goes into production at Hydro’s aluminum works. The police have told Nettavisen that the captain of the ship is beyond suspicion.
Customs used ROV equipment and divers to examine the cargo ship.
Tags: Cocaine Hordaland district court Accused receiving kilos cocaine Thought hashish
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