Päijät-Häme District Court has handed down a maximum 13-year prison sentence to Esko Eklund after finding him guilty on charges related to three aggravated drug offences, a firearms offence and an aggravated firearms offence.
Prosecutors in the case told the court that Eklund led the Cannonball motorcycle gang and who, according to the pre-trial investigation, used the online handle "the human animal".
The investigation was part of a broad international probe in which criminals in different countries were tricked into using Anom, a messaging service controlled by the FBI. Users of the system thought their messages were entirely encrypted, when in reality all of the information was being stored on FBI servers.
Eklund had denied all charges, and told the court that he had left the Cannonball group in 2019.
He also denied using the 'human animal' handle in the Anom service and demanded that Anom messages be withheld from the court as the evidence was gathered using methods that would not be legal in Finland. The court dismissed this application.
Court convicts 15 other defendants
There were a total of 22 suspects in the case, and the court handed down prison sentences to 12 of the defendants, while three others received suspended sentences, two were ordered to pay fines and another was found guilty but not sentenced.
The charges against six further suspects were dismissed.
In its ruling, the court stated that harsher penalties were handed down because the crimes were committed by members of an organised criminal gang.
In addition to Eklund, three others were sentenced to more than five years in prison as each were considered by the court to have played a significant role in the Cannonball gang.
Ilkka Laakso was sentenced to 10 years in prison on two drug offences and one firearms offence while his mother Sirpa Laakso received a five month suspended sentence on charges including money laundering.
Yle made the decision to publish Sirpa Laakso's name because she was sitting on Hämeenlinna City Council and was chairman of the council's Audit Committee at the time of the crimes.
The rulings in the case are not final, meaning the defendants can appeal their convictions and sentences to a higher court.
Cannonball ban in process
Last autumn prosecutors demanded that Cannonball and an association attached to it, Squad 32, be disbanded. That case is expected to come before the Päijjät-Häme court by the end of April.
Cannonball MC is a gang established in 1991 in Helsinki, which authorities have designated a criminal organisation. Prosecutors want to disband the registered association, which they say is primarily engaged in criminal activities.
Cannonball has demanded that the petition be rejected, saying it is simply a motorcycle club whose nearly 200 members are mostly free of criminal records.
In that case Eklund also denies being a member of or representing Cannonball. In that case the organisation is represented by two men, one who claims to be the club's president and one who says he is a member.