The customs officials reacted to this – the next day they found 150 kilos of cocaine attached to a ship

One late evening and night in April last year, four large packages in hard plastic are taken out from the bottom of a large cargo ship that is docked in Husnes in Kvinnherad.

About a kilometer from the ship, several people stand ready at the water’s edge.

They will receive the packages from the diver who has retrieved them from the ship.

What they don’t know is that the police are in the bushes watching them. In the air a little further away, a police helicopter hovers in the dark, filming with a heat-seeking camera.

The black packages are placed in the trunk of a car.

When the car drives off, the police go into action.

They arrest a total of six people.

In the trunk, the police find four hard plastic bags containing cocaine.

It is estimated to be 150 kilos – and is thus one of the largest cocaine seizures ever made in Norway.

On the market, it is worth at least NOK 150 million.

One pleads guilty

Now five people stand trial for importing the record seizure in Hordaland District Court, four men and one woman.

All the defendants are foreign nationals, and are prosecuted according to the so-called the mafia sectionThe Mafia section is Section 79 of the Criminal Code. It allows for stiffer punishments for organized groups of criminals. The addition to the sentence can be up to six years in prison..

A sixth man was charged in the case, but was found dead in the prison in Agder before Christmas.

Of the five, only one pleaded guilty when the trial was held in Hordaland District Court on Tuesday. Three pleaded not guilty, while Siseman acknowledged the facts, but says he thought it was hashish they received in the port.

In court, several of the defendants said that they believe that they have been subjected to pressure and coercion, and that they did not know what they were involved in.

– There is no doubt that the defendants objectively contributed to the importation of 150 kilograms of cocaine. The central issue of evidence will be their intent, whether they have done it deliberately with knowledge and will, and that they know that it was cocaine they were helping to introduce, said state attorney Benedicte Hordnes during her opening presentation in the district court.

From customs control to intelligence operations

The whole roll-up started with a customs control in Larvik on 10 April 2023. There the customs officers react to an Albanian man who is carrying diving equipment. The story he tells makes them suspect that there may be something afoot.

They let the man go, but scouts follow him.

– The reason they do this is that it is known to the police and customs that drugs are smuggled from South America below the waterline in waterproof bags, so-called parasite smuggling. This requires qualified divers, explains state prosecutor Benedicte Hordnes during the trial’s first day on Tuesday.

Here examines The customs office the ship after the arrest:

At Gardermoen, the Albanian man meets some people, now the defendants in the case, from whom he takes over the diving equipment. From here, the police and the Norwegian Customs Service launch a large-scale surveillance operation.

The day after the handover, four of the now indicted persons get into two rental cars heading from Gardermoen over Hardangervidda.

When the Customs Agency sees that the rental car passes the toll ring in the direction of Hønefoss, they suspect that they are heading west. They figure out two relevant ports in Western Norway, and see that it is a ship that was on its way from South America to Husnes, a small village in Kvinnherad municipality with just over 2,200 inhabitants,

Once they arrive in Husnes, they move into apartments rented via AirBnB.

For the next 24 hours, those involved are kept under close supervision by the police.

Observed people “watching on the shore”

On 12 April, the ship Nordloire docks in the small village. It has traveled from Brazil, and is loaded with raw material for the production of aluminium.

When darkness has descended, the police notice that there is movement.

– In the evening, it is clear to the police that something is going to happen. They have a hidden camera outside the rental property, where they see a lot of activity. They also have tracking on the rental cars, says prosecutor Hordnes.

About an hour and a half before midnight, the five defendants leave the apartments and head for the harbour. According to the prosecutor, they gather at a rest area by the harbor area.

At around half past two in the morning, the police helicopter reports that they are observing people lying on the shore.

– It is then decided that an arrest should be made, says Hordnes.

Over the next ten minutes, all six are arrested. In one of the cars, the police find the four large, wet packages in strong plastic.

– Parasite smuggling has become a particular method of smuggling cocaine, after the police and customs have focused on the fact that a lot of cocaine comes in containers from boats. It has thus become a method of smuggling below the waterline, states Attorney General Benedicte Hordnes.