A Danish national has received a prison sentence for trying to smuggle hashish into Norway on a ferry.
The 57-year-old man from Hirtshals was jailed for two years and nine months at a court in Hjorring after 275 kg of the drug was found hidden in a horsebox en route to Stavanger.
Danish authorities said the smuggler had made several trips between July 2021 and June 2022, driving the horse transporter aboard.
The sentencing is part of a larger, more complex case, involving several other people in custody, charged with hashish smuggling.
“I am satisfied with the verdict, which rests on very thorough investigative work,” said Morten Rasmussen, special prosecutor at the national crime agency, NSK.
“The sentence reflects that the authorities take international drug crime very seriously, but also that the convicted person has chosen to confess his role in the case.”
The court has confiscated DKK 100,000 ($14,400), a Rolex watch and a gold bar in the possession of the convicted man.
The only ferry company operating on the route is Fjord Line of Norway, which runs a dual-fuel LNG pair, the 32,500-gt Stavangerfjord (built 2013) and Bergensfjord (built 2014) from Hirtshals.
The crossing takes 10-and-a-half hours.
The case is on a different scale from another recent one involving drugs and livestock.
Last month, Spanish police seized 4.5 tonnes of cocaine on a cattle carrier off the Canary Islands. The drugs were hidden inside a container of cattle feed on the 4,000-dwt Orion V (built 1973).
