The former head of Helsinki police’s narcotics unit is to face trial on corruption charges relating to his role in the Trevoc company, which sold surveillance and tracking devices to law enforcement agencies in Finland. The prosecutor's pre-trial consideration of charges has been completed, and his charge sheet was published on Wednesday.
One of his co-defendants is suspected of playing a leading role in the United Brotherhood motorcycle gang, an organised criminal group.
The prosecutor has considered possible charges, and decided to charge Aarnio with aggravated fraud, aggravated bribe-taking and aggravated abuse of an official position, along with crimes relating to official company records. He denies all the charges, as do the eight other defendants in the case.
The prosecutor will argue that Aarnio took bribes from Trevoc, as he was offered a stake in the company and used that position for his own financial benefit. The charges state that Aarnio played a key role in Trevoc.
According to the police investigation, a leader of the United Brotherhood also played a key role at Trevoc. The prosecutor charges that the gang’s role in Trevoc was concealed from the authorities to whom Trevoc sold equipment. Trevoc’s customers included the police, the border guard and the customs agency.
According to information obtained by Yle, those authorities have been forced to stop using the products they bought from Trevoc since the gang connection came to light.
In addition to Aarnio and the United Brotherhood leader, one official from the Security Intelligence Police (Supo) is also going to be tried on charges of bribe-taking. All nine accused deny the charges.