Toomas Helin (born 25 April 1966 in Pärnu - died 27 January 2021) was an

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

drug smuggler. Police considers Helin to have been among the leaders of the so-called Linnuvabriku group of organised crime.

Drug smuggling

In 2002, when he was still under criminal investigation under suspicion of attempting to smuggle about a

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

from Africa to

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, Helin gained notoriety by his bail, which was on 18 September 2002 set on 1.5 million Estonian kroons. , it's still the largest bail set in

. In April 2005, Helin was convicted for several

drug-related crime A drug-related crime is a crime to possess, manufacture, or distribute drugs classified as having a potential for abuse (such as cocaine, heroin, morphine and amphetamines). Drugs are also related to crime as drug trafficking and drug productio ...

s, including the attempt to smuggle 973.46 kg of

from

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

, and sentenced to six years and six months of imprisonment. Postimees/ BNS 21 September 2007
Toomas Helin taotleb enda vanglast vabastamist
/ref> Along with him were convicted Indrek Sürje and Märt Joller. Notably, all three were cleared of charges of ''membership in criminal organisation'', sometimes (incorrectly) compared with the

Common Law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

crime of criminal conspiracy. In September 2007, he was released from prison. In April Helin was detained. On 30 April Estonian court decided to extradite him to Germany, suspected of organizing theft of luxury cars.

Car thefts

German prosecutors suspect that Helin may have been one of the men involved in masterminding theft of 64 luxury cars in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

and elsewhere in Germany in the total value of about EUR 4 mln. Stolen vehicles were quickly driven to South of France and Spain where they were sold with a huge profit.

References

Sources

Eesti Ekspress ''Eesti Ekspress'' (''Estonian Express'') is an Estonian weekly newspaper. Founded in 1989, ''Eesti Ekspress'' was the first politically independent newspaper in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic during the Soviet control of Estonia. Th ...

10 April 2002
Toomas Helin: "Politsei söödab mulle solki!"
by Mihkel Kärmas * http://bbn.ee/Default2.aspx?ArticleID=e41adc26-0127-44ac-b09f-2198b4409e7d 1966 births Living people Estonian drug traffickers Estonian prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Estonia {{Crime-bio-stub