The Court of Appeal (Landsréttur), Iceland’s appellate court, has confirmed extended pretrial detention for suspects in several of the country’s largest attempted drug-smuggling cases, RÚV reported today. The rulings affect four individuals connected to two separate investigations involving substantial quantities of cocaine and amphetamine and underline the scale of the probes.
One of the confirmed cases is known as the Straumsvík case, in which authorities found 106 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a ship’s sea chest near Straumsvík, the location of the aluminium smelter operated by Rio Tinto outside Hafnarfjörður.
According to RÚV, the Court of Appeal reviewed and confirmed three detention orders for these large-scale drug cases last Friday and Monday. Full details of the court documents have not been released to the public.
In a separate case also under review by the appellate court, two men remain in pretrial custody on suspicion of attempting to import about 10.5 kilograms of amphetamine and just under 2 kilograms of cocaine. These drugs were discovered concealed inside a motorhome that arrived in Iceland in May, according to mbl.is.
Sources
- RÚV (first reported) in Icelandic
- mbl.is in Icelandic
Image: U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Bigley / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain), original (resized) Illustrative image.
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