Kids These Days: Helsinki Teen Leads Drug Cartel From Dad's Garage

Using the Tor network, the go-ahead 17-year-old created stocks of drugs in his father's garage, where he also ran his shady business. According to the Helsinki daily Hufvudstadsbladet, his motives were quite typical: a desire for fast cash and a sense of immortality.

The resourceful teen was entrusted with a key to the garage by his unsuspecting father under the pretext of using it as a makeshift gym. He may have very well pumped some iron there, but what's more important is that the garage doubled as a safe depot and office.

At first, sales and distribution went sluggishly, but with the help of the Tor network, which conceals its users' identities and their online activity from surveillance and traffic analysis, he managed to build up his clientele, establishing an organization that generated tens of thousands of euros in net profit.

With money rolling in, the father eventually began to suspect some unlawful activity on his son's part. He urged his son to stop, but the pleas apparently fell upon deaf ears, as he continued ordering drugs from Holland and redistributing them in Finland via intermediaries. Ultimately, the family was paid a somewhat unexpected visit by the narcotics agents.

During the search, police seized a staggering six kilograms of amphetamine packed in glass jars and thousands of pills, including ecstasy. The young kingpin was awarded a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for serious drug offences, while two of his sidekicks were also sentenced to imprisonment, one conditionally. The culprit also has to pay the Finnish state €30,000 ($33,000) in compensation for the criminal procedures.

Initially, the father was also charged with a serious drug offence, but was later released, since it could not be proven that he would ever intentionally help his son in criminal activities.

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