A drugs trial got underway at Helsinki District Court on Thursday, and is expected to put up to 50 defendants in the dock over the course of the next four months.
There was extra security in place for the start of the trial where the high profile suspects were seen at an underground court room, with members of the public excluded from attending.
Journalists had to watch proceedings on a live video feed from an adjacent room, and were forbidden to even take pictures of the accused as they appeared on TV screens.
The main suspects are the former Cannonball crime gang boss Janne ‘Nacci’ Tranberg who was extradited from Spain, and businessman Niko Ranta-aho.
Prosecutors say they up a huge drugs empire based in Spain that funneled large quantities of illegal drugs into from Spain via the Netherlands to Finland, where narcotics were distributed to dealers in the Helsinki capital region and in Tampere.
Among the others facing charges in connection with this case are Instagram model Sofia Belórf - the girlfriend of Ranta-aho; - and Sunrise Avenue singer Samu Haber who told reporters on arrival at the court house in Ruoholahti that his memories of a night he took drugs that had been smuggled to Finland, is somewhat foggy. The singer told journalists that he doesn’t know Tranberg or Ranta-aho, and didn’t get drugs from them.
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