On Monday Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announced it had wrapped up a lengthy preliminary investigation into three serious environmental crimes involving the illegal transport of waste between Finland and Estonia.
The NBI suspect six individuals and seven companies from both countries took part in environmental crimes that were jointly investigated by Finnish and Estonian authorities.
The Finnish cases are being referred to prosecutors in Southern Finland for charges to be considered, the NBI said.
The first investigation involved 70 shipments totalling about 1,700 tonnes of construction waste from Finland to Estonia without the required permits. The alleged shipments took place from May to October 2019, until the shipping firm was caught.
Finnish authorities became aware of the illegal shipments that autumn, after Estonian authorities contacted them about a load of waste delivered from Finland to the Port of Tallinn that did not agree with the shipping documents they were shown.
The documents, according to the NBI, stated that the shipment contained construction and demolition waste.
"But when it was checked, it was discovered that the waste was [actually] light-fraction shredder waste from mechanical processing of construction and demolition waste,"an NBI statement said.
Shipping that type of waste requires a separate permit, as the refuse cannot be recycled in the same way as construction and demolition waste, the law enforcement agency explained.
Following a request from the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), the NBI opened a probe into the matter under the criminal heading of suspected aggravated impairment of the environment.
1,500+ tonnes of toxic, waste oil
As that investigation began to unfold, the NBI said it then uncovered evidence the suspects had also shipped about 860 tonnes of transformer oil — classified as hazardous waste — from Finland to Estonia between May 2018 to November 2019. The discovery prompted SYKE to request an additional investigation, resulting in the NBI to suspect the Finnish operator of aggravated impairment of the environment for that alleged offense.
The third suspected crime involved 26 illegal shipments totalling about 670 tonnes of oil waste sent from Estonia to Finland.
A separate Finnish firm notified SYKE of the shipments after noticing during an internal audit that it had received oil waste from Estonia during April and May 2020. Citing SYKE, the NBI said the company that shipped the oil waste had not applied for a required permit.
The firm that alerted authorities about the oil waste shipments are not suspected of any crime, according to the NBI's head of investigation, Senior Detective Superintendent Lauri Pajunoja.
Suspects deny allegations
A total of six individuals are suspected of crimes in Finland and seven firms based in Finland and Estonia are linked directly to the offences, the NBI said.
The District Prosecutor of the Northern District Prosecutor's Office in Estonia, Jürgen Hüva, said that current and former board members of the firms under investigation are suspected of "having acted knowingly and together to avoid the waste shipment costs," according to the NBI.
"All suspects deny having committed any crimes in the matter," the NBI's Pajunoja said in a statement.
The NBI's statement noted that laws surrounding how waste is handled and shipped aim to prevent risk or danger to public health and to minimise environmental impacts.
"When waste is shipped without a permit or based on an incorrect permit, the authorities cannot assess the treatment of the shipped waste or possible risks posed to the environment. This presents a risk that the waste is not handled properly," Pajunoja said in the statement.