Solna District Court sentences three men in first Trojan Shield case – woman acquitted
Three men sentenced to between two and six years' imprisonment for serious drug offences at Solna District Court. A 33-year-old woman is completely acquitted of complicity in serious drug smuggling.
First Swedish judgment in Anom investigation: three prison sentences, one acquittal
Solna District Court delivered judgment on 2 November in the first Swedish case linked to the international operation Trojan Shield. Three men aged 21 to 33 were sentenced for serious drug offences, among other charges, to imprisonment of between two and six years. A 33-year-old woman was completely acquitted, reports Mitt i.
The background to the case is an incident on 26 March when four suitcases were filled with just over 100 kilogrammes of cannabis in a flat in Bromma. When the suitcases were transported from there, police struck and arrested two people – one in Älta and one in Solna. It was Swedish police's first operation within the framework of Trojan Shield.
The operation was made possible by the FBI creating and administering the encrypted chat tool Anom, with the purpose of getting criminals to use it. Every message sent via the service was also sent as a hidden copy to law enforcement authorities, which gave police complete insight into communication regarding the drug delivery.
"These networks cooperate in certain areas in a way that we have not been aware of before. It is like different entrepreneurs who cooperate in certain areas with different batches of drugs," said Magnus Mowitz, operation leader for Trojan Shield at police in the Stockholm region, earlier this year to Mitt i.
Sentences and acquittals
A 33-year-old man was sentenced for serious drug smuggling, serious drug offence, serious money laundering and money laundering to six years' imprisonment. The man admitted to a drug offence but contested that it was of a serious nature, and admitted to the money laundering offences. His defence counsel Martin Cullberg stated that they do not plan to appeal the judgment at this time.
A 25-year-old man was sentenced for serious drug offence but acquitted of attempted serious drug offence. He was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and denied both offences.
A 21-year-old man was sentenced for attempted serious drug offence and serious weapons offence but acquitted of serious drug offence. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and admitted only to the weapons offence.
Additionally, a 27-year-old man, with no connection to the drug offence, was sentenced for serious weapons offence to six months' imprisonment.
The 33-year-old woman who participated in the transport of the suitcases was completely acquitted of complicity in serious drug smuggling. The judgment shows that, according to her own account, she was unaware of the contents. She lived in her mother's flat in Bromma and had agreed to allow an acquaintance to store furniture there during a house move. The acquaintance had no previous drug convictions, and they had known each other for a long time.
Prosecutor Joakim Hall says he did not expect the acquittal.
"I was somewhat surprised when the woman was acquitted and I shall consider whether I should appeal that part. I felt that the evidence of her involvement was compelling," he says.
Dispute over admissibility of evidence
Several defence counsels questioned during the trial that the district court attached great importance to Anom communication. They argued that Swedish police circumvent Swedish legislation by allowing foreign authorities to conduct secret data interception against persons in Sweden, without authorisation from a Swedish court.
The arguments are reminiscent of those presented in the trials concerning the encrypted service Encrochat. As in those cases, Solna District Court referred to the principle of free evidence, which means that all evidence presented in a trial may be used regardless of how it was obtained. The Supreme Court chose in May not to examine the question of whether Encrochat evidence is compatible with Swedish law.
The district court writes nonetheless in the judgment that "evidence in the form of Anom messages should be assessed with particular caution" and that it has been significant whether Anom communication is the sole evidence or whether it is supported by other corroborating evidence.
Prosecutor Hall considers the judgment to be of principal importance.
"It is the first time that a court in a larger case has reviewed evidence from the encrypted app Anom and the district court has shared my assessment of which accounts can be linked to. In that respect I am satisfied with how the district court has reasoned," he says.
Operation Trojan Shield in figures
Anom was marketed as a secure communication tool for criminal networks but was in reality created and controlled by the FBI as part of the Trojan Shield operation. When the operation was made public in June, 800 people had been arrested in 16 countries, of which 155 were in Sweden. By early October, tonnes of drugs, large quantities of weapons and 48 million dollars in various currencies had been seized. Swedish police assess that the operation has prevented ten murders.
Source: Mitt i