Police seized drugs and materials for drug production for 1.7 billion ISK after an investigation that has been ongoing for the last few months.

This is the most amount of drugs seized by the police and the investigation has been a cooperatin between a few police offices, according to the police in Reykjavik at a press conference today, where the police talked about two cases investigated simultaneously, one that has been ongoing since midyear 2020.

Twenty searches made during the investigation

The police seized 200 cannabis plants, 200 kg of marijuana, 20 kg of hashish, 7 kg of mdma crystal (which can be used to make 50,000 e-tablets), 7,000 e tablets, over 20 liters of mdma base (which can be used to make 200,000 e tablets), 40 liters of amphetamine base (which can be used to produce 170 kg of amphetamine) and 20 kg of crystal meth.

Margeir Sveinsson who works for the Central Police Investigation Department says that a group of men had been under investigation suspected of running a big operation of selling and distributing drugs.

The police conducted twenty searches, both in cars and housing as a part of the overall investigation and ten people were arrested. Five were taken into custody and one is still in custody.

Found materials to make 117 kg of amphetamine

Grímur Grímsson, the Chief Police officer in the Central Police Investigation Department, said at the press conference today that the Icelandic police got information from Europol about organized crime around the middle of the year 2020. As a result the National Commissioner of Police, the Police Department of Suðurnes, the Police in Reykjavik and the Director of Internal Revenue started their investigation.

In the beginning of last year they found materials used to produce over 117 kg of amphetamine and in another investigation they found five kg of amphetamine. The street value of the drugs are about 700 million ISK.

Last May the Police took action and arrested ten suspects because of the case. Five of them were put in custody and three are still in custody.

Got access to encrypted communication

Hulda Elsa Björgvinsdóttir, head of the Prosecution Division, said that a lot of work had been put into the case and much time had been spent analysing the data and the evidence. Furthermore, a lot of time had been spent in cooperation with other countries.

She said that the suspects had been using the social media app EncroChat so they could communicate in encrypted messages. That way they were covering their tracks and could communicate anonymously. Apps of this sort are supposed to be completely safe and have been marketed to target groups of this kind.

However, the Icelandic Police got a formal permit to analyze data that police in other countries had captured. In those messages there were information about organized crime in Iceland, especially in relation to the production and selling of drugs and money laundering.