Weapons hidden behind paintings, watches in oven mitts and 1.4 million kroner in cash – that’s what the police found in connection with a house search in a residence south of Stockholm.
Now a 45-year-old man is sentenced to prison for serious money laundering and serious weapons offences, reports Today’s Law.
It was in the summer of 2020 that the police suspected that a 45-year-old man was handling stolen goods at a flea market in the Stockholm suburb of Vårberg.
The police noted that the man was selling newer things compared to what is usually sold at a flea market, and launched a search operation against the man. It was Today’s Law first to report on.
Search
When police first searched a garage, where the man kept his belongings, they found a double-barreled shotgun, a barrel repeating rifle and a large amount of ammunition hidden in a garbage bag.
After the findings, the police decided to also search the man’s residence.
In connection with the search of the man’s residence, a loaded gun was first found hidden behind a painting in the living room, a permit-required trigger gun, pepper spray and ammunition. The police also found 140,000 kroner hidden in a hollow space above the refrigerator, gold jewelry and branded watches, as well as several watches hidden in oven mitts.
Cash in table legs
But when the police enlisted the help of specially trained dogs to conduct a further search of the man’s home, an unusual find was made – SEK 1.4 million in cash, rolled up and hidden inside the table legs of a dining table with the man’s DNA on it.
The man who is now sentenced to serious weapons crime and serious money laundering crime at the Svea Court of Appeal states that the cash comes from a real estate sale in Baghdad, and that he found the gun that was hidden behind the painting in a garbage container.
“Has as a hobby”
The man further states that his hobby was to buy things at the flea market and then sell them more expensively.
“My hobby is shopping at flea markets. Sometimes I see things thrown in the garbage, then I take them,” says the man during an interrogation with the police.
The accused man has had no taxed income apart from housing allowance and subsistence allowance.
“I receive benefits from social security, I pay debts with the Kronofogden and CSN and mine
bills. My brother sometimes sends me money,” the man answers when asked how he makes a living.
The man was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in the district court, but appealed to the Court of Appeal, which has now upheld the sentence.