Norway’s Drug Scandal
I found two shocking headlines regarding a case of police corruption in Norway.
“Norway ex-cop faces 21 years in jail for drug smuggling”
“The worst corruption scandal Norway has ever seen”
The story reads that a Norwegian prosecutor was sentenced to 21 years imprisonment for allowing nearly 14 tons of Hashish to be smuggled into Norway while he was a police officer.
The man accused is a 60-year old who was in charge of fighting organized crime, however, his corruption ran so deep that he was reportedly working with and being paid off by an infamous drug trafficker, also known as the "hashish baron", for several years.
This “police officer” supposedly received at least 2.1 million Norwegian Crowns (about 251,640 USD) in exchange for insider information which has helped the drug trafficker smuggle hash from Morocco, Spain, The Netherlands and Denmark for years.
It is believed this officer had made between 1 and 2 billion Norwegian Crowns (about 119,135,491- 238,270,982 USD) since he was recruited as an informant in 1993.
My question is how is it that no one had any idea or blew the whistle on this criminal in a police uniform for 24 years?
While Norway statistically has one of the worse drug problems in Europe (Norway has nearly FOUR TIMES as many drug-related, overdose deaths as is the average in Europe) not only is a blind eye turned, but here is a trusted policeman adding to the already horrific death toll.
The Norwegian drug scene is at the root of crime in the country as addicts look for ways of funding their habit. One of the main reasons deaths are higher in Norway than other parts of Europe is that more people inject heroin rather than smoke it. Drugs users then mix this with Rohypnol and alcohol.
So, drugs continue to be a major crisis in Norway. The tide needs to be turned, this beautiful country is blood-stained and there are solutions in drug-education and real drug rehabilitation, while the integrity of the police force gets dealt with.
Sources:
https://www.thelocal.no/20170520/norway-ex-cop-faces-21-years-in-jail-for-drug-smuggling
http://norwaytoday.info/news/norge-hoyt-pa-overdosestatistikken/
