Police could not charge suspect after wiretap revealed reindeer theft

A wiretap captured a suspect telling another person they had taken an unmarked reindeer, but prosecutors could not use the conversation as evidence because the surveillance warrant covered a different, more serious offence, Yle reported. The case was among several suspected crimes in a large reindeer-related investigation in Upper Lapland that did not lead to charges.

Prosecutors have brought charges against 18 people in the wider case, involving 11 different alleged offences. They include aggravated money laundering, aggravated fraud, fraud, firearms offences, aggravated hunting offences and a nature conservation offence. Prosecutors also made 11 decisions not to bring charges and one decision to restrict a preliminary investigation, covering 16 people suspected of various offences.

In three of the decisions, involving eight suspects, the issue was that evidence had emerged through telecommunications interception authorised for investigating another crime. Finnish law allows courts to authorise interception only for offences that meet a threshold of seriousness. Information about other suspected crimes, known in law as incidental information, can be used as evidence only in limited circumstances.

In the reindeer case, police had obtained permission to intercept communications while investigating suspected aggravated money laundering, not theft. The prosecutor concluded that the conversation about taking the reindeer could not be used as evidence. There was not enough other evidence to bring a charge.

Yle reported that similar situations arose in the investigation, with intercepted calls providing indications of possible offences such as basic money laundering or handling stolen goods. Special prosecutor Henna Väyrynen said it is not unusual for some suspected offences in a large case to go uncharged because the evidence was obtained as incidental information.

The broader case concerns alleged crimes linked to reindeer husbandry in Upper Lapland. Prosecutors allege that stolen reindeer were marked as the property of defendants or people close to them, and that applications for compensation for predator and reindeer damage were made using false information. The alleged offences took place mainly in Inari, in the areas of the Näätämö, Vätsäri, Muddusjärvi and Paistunturi reindeer herding cooperatives.