Jari Seppo Aarnio (born 5 September 1957) is the former head of

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

anti-drug Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definitions ...

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

and a convicted felon. He was given a 13-year

prison sentence In criminal law, a sentence is the punishment for a crime ordered by a trial court after conviction in a criminal procedure, normally at the conclusion of a trial. A sentence may consist of imprisonment, a fine, or other sanctions. Sentences for ...

for drug crimes and other offences. Aarnio spent 30 years in the anti-drugs force. He grew up in a Maunula suburb of Helsinki, and became a

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

in 1979. He was a chief investigator in a case against "

drug baron A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise. Crime barons may be difficult to bring to justice: usually, they do not possess illegal goods. Ra ...

" Miika Kortekallio in 1986. Kortekallio was sentenced to jail; Aarnio wrote his

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

about the Kortekallio case. He was named "Policeman of the year" in 1987.

Drug trafficking and corruption charges

During 2011 and 2012, Aarnio abused his position by helping a

gang A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...

smuggle Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

and sell 800 kg of

hashish Hashish (; ), usually abbreviated as hash, is a Compression (physics), compressed form of resin (trichomes) derived from the cannabis flowers. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, As a Psychoactive drug, psychoactive ...

into Finland. He also threatened a suspect, and tried to

frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

an innocent man for being in charge of the drug ring. He also used his position and experience to try to mislead his colleagues and to conceal evidence. In September 2016, Aarnio was given a three-year sentence in corruption charges which involved a security company called "Trevoc". The company's products were used by the Helsinki Police Department, the

Finnish Customs Finnish Customs (, ) is the customs service of the Republic of Finland. It is a government agency steered by the Ministry of Finance. The Finnish Customs is a part of the customs system of the European Union and has around 1,900 employees. Hi ...

, the National Bureau of Investigation of Finland and the

Foreign ministry In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral re ...

. A lower court had given Aarnio a 20-month sentence, but the Court of Appeal raised it to three years. According to the court's verdict, Aarnio had a financial interest in the company and he influenced the officials' decision to buy the company's products. The company's ownership was kept secret from the buyers, and the deal involved the leader of "United Brotherhood", a Finnish crime syndicate. In December 2016, Aarnio was sentenced to ten years in the drug case. Combined with the Trevoc verdict, his full sentence was 13 years. As a first-timer he was to serve half of the sentence, and because he had already been in custody for two years, he was to serve 4.5 years. In 2017, Aarnio appealed to overturn his prison sentence. The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction, and the

Supreme Court of Finland The Supreme Court of Finland ( , abbreviated as ''KKO''; , abbreviated as ''HD''), located in Helsinki, is the court of last resort for cases within the private law of Finland (that is, civil and criminal cases). The Court's counterpart is the ...

later denied his last appeal.

Murder charge

In July 2018, Aarnio was accused of murder. He had allegedly failed to prevent a planned murder of which he had knowledge of in 2003. In December 2020, he was sentenced to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...

for the murder of Volkan Ünsal, but the conviction was overturned on appeal in February 2022. In March 2022, the Deputy Prosecutor General of Finland filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, because there were no precedents for such cases. According to the prosecutors, Aarnio had prior knowledge of the murder, and as a police officer he should have tried to prevent it.

Released from prison

Soon after Aarnio's murder conviction was overturned he was released from prison on supervised parole. In June 2022, his parole ended.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aarnio, Jari 1957 births 21st-century Finnish criminals Finnish male criminals Criminals from Helsinki Finnish people convicted of drug offenses Finnish police officers Living people Police officers convicted of corruption Police officers convicted of crimes Police officers convicted of drug trafficking