Appeal court overturns acquittal and sentences man to three years

Finland’s Eastern Finland Court of Appeal has sentenced Jukka Matti Vainio to three years in prison for an aggravated drug offence, overturning a district court acquittal in a case linked to an FBI investigation, Yle reported.

The offence involved one kilogram of amphetamine in Kouvola in 2020. The appeal court found that the drug had been delivered to Vainio and that he had taken part in its distribution. It described the amount as large and the substance as highly dangerous.

The case concerns an organised crime group led by Ville Tapani Lehmusmetsä of Kouvola, which bought and sold tens of kilograms of drugs in southern Finland. It was among the drug cases exposed through Anom, a communications platform developed by the FBI.

The Kymenlaakso District Court rejected the charge against Vainio when it ruled on the case in 2025. The prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of more than three years.

The appeal court also reduced another man’s sentence from three years and one month to two years and six months. It overturned one of his aggravated drug convictions because the evidence in messages related to amphetamine deals was uncertain.

The group’s leading members had already received prison sentences of more than 10 years from the Helsinki District Court in 2023. The group transported, among other drugs, 706 kilograms of amphetamine to Finland. Police traced the suspects through the international Greenlight operation, in which criminals in several countries were deceived into using the FBI-developed Anom platform.