Crewman says fear made it hard to reject amphetamine shipment

A crewman charged in the Dettifoss drug case said fear made it difficult to refuse to transport amphetamine base from Germany to Iceland, mbl.is reports.

He gave evidence at Reykjavík District Court after the other crewman testified earlier on Wednesday. The witness said an unidentified man had asked him to bring the substance from Germany.

The two crewmen were initially uncertain about whether they wanted to take part. They planned to think about it, but while they were in Greenland they were told that the importation had been arranged and that they would receive the shipment in Germany.

“It was naturally difficult to say no,” the crewman said when asked whether he had been under pressure. “Simply because of fear.”

He declined to identify the person with whom the crewmen had communicated about the shipment. The other crewman had previously testified that they met Sævar Hilmarsson at a bar to discuss the importation and communicated through the Signal messaging app.

The witness referred only to an unidentified man and refused to provide further details about their communications. He acknowledged meeting the man in a public place with the other crewman, where they agreed to think about the matter.

“Then we simply were not given a chance to back out of it,” he said.

The crewmen believed they would be transporting seven litres between the countries. They were therefore alarmed when they received a suitcase in Germany and saw that it contained a considerably larger quantity of material. By then, the witness said, it was too late to withdraw, and they feared what would happen to them if they refused.

The crewmen were arrested when they arrived in Iceland on April 13. The court heard that the witness had had access to Signal since March, but he declined to explain why.