Toomas Helin (born 25 April 1966 in

Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth-largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second-largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of ...

- 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 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

from Africa to

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

, Helin gained notoriety by his

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...

, 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 product ...

s, including the attempt to smuggle 973.46 kg of

from

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

, and sentenced to six years and six months of imprisonment.

Postimees is an Estonian daily newspaper established on 5 June 1857, by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. In 1891, it became the first daily newspaper in Estonia. Its current editor-in-chief is Priit Hõbemägi. The paper has approximately 250 employees. ''P ...

/ 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 Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

crime of

criminal conspiracy In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance ...

. 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 states of Germany, 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 i ...

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