Detail

Finland’s customs service said it was continuing to investigate the activities of two companies accused of illegally exporting nearly 3,500 unmanned aerial vehicles and sanctions-controlled anti-UAV components. Both companies are owned by the same person who is currently in custody. One of the companies was engaged in the purchase of equipment, the other was controlling its removal from the country.

• Finnish officials estimated that the total cost of equipment sent to Russia during the entire period of full-scale war 3 million euros.
• This includes microcontrollers and semiconductor components for anti-UAV devices. 600,000 euros.
• A calculation based on Finnish customs data shows that the average price of each drone exported to Russia is: about $575. This suggests that most of these were primarily consumer UAVs, which were later repurposed for military use in Ukraine.

Officials cooperating with EU law enforcement in the operation said the shipments were labeled as destined for other countries but were actually delivered to Russia. Hannu Sinkkonen, chief of police at the Finnish customs authority, said six people have now been arrested.

“Our preliminary investigation indicates that the activity was directed in Russia. The scenario was based on a large network of international companies from which the activity was financed.”– said Sinkkonen, adding that during the investigation, Finnish law enforcement agencies cooperated with the authorities of the Netherlands, Great Britain and the USA, as well as Europol.