Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.08.2017, Page 14

Reykjavík’s Cocaine
Underworld Reawakens
“Sometimes the drugs would be attached
under the ship, and divers would fetch it
once it arrived in Iceland”

Words: Zoë Vala Sands
Photo: Reynir Traustason
So far this year, customs agents
at Keflavík International Airport
have intercepted 20.7 kg of co-
caine coming into Iceland, which
is more cocaine than has been
seized in the past four years total.
The contraband is worth over half
a billion ISK (4 million€). The po-
lice has also stopped 1.95 L of liq-
uid cocaine, in the first instance
of liquid cocaine ever being smug-
gled into Iceland. As of today, 20
legal cases are being prosecuted.
Rich man’s drug
“The smuggling of cocaine seems
to correlate with the country's
economic prosperity,” says Friðrik
Smári Björgvinsson, Chief of Police
in the capital region. The amount of
cocaine caught by customs peaked
at 12,840 kg in 2006, when Iceland’s
GDP was 1.8 trillion ISK (14.46 bil-
lion €). But after the 2008 econom-
ic crash, the numbers dropped to
a low of 1,736 kg in 2014. In 2016,
Iceland’s GDP had bounced back to
2.1 trillion ISK (17.02 billion €) and
now the cocaine just keeps flowing.
Friðrik suspects that as Iceland-
ers have grown richer, “there has
been an increase in consumption
of cocaine.” He also believes that co-
caine is “possibly coming instead of
other drugs, such as amphetamine.”
Cocaine truly is a rich man’s drug in
Iceland— a gram of cocaine general-
ly sells for 18,000 ISK (143€), where-
as a gram of amphetamine sells for
5,000 ISK (40€), according to Icelan-
dic drug-selling Facebook groups.
4th amphetamine
capital of Europe
Friðrik points out that the signifi-
cant increase in findings of co-
caine could also be explained by the
police department’s high state of
alertness due to a suspected rise in
the production of amphetamines
in Iceland. Reykjavík was listed as
the 4th amphetamine capital of Eu-
rope, according to a 2016 report by
the European Monitoring Center
for Drugs and Drugs Addiction.
Always finding new
ways to smuggle
When asked whether he thinks cus-
toms could improve their search
methods, Friðrik says that it’s a
possibility, but, “at this stage an-
swering such questions is mostly
a guessing game.” Renowned jour-
nalist Reynir Traustason is more
pessimistic: “I doubt it. I don’t
think there’s much customs can
do. People are always finding new
ways to smuggle.” Reynir is the
author of 'Skuggabörn' (2006), an
investigative work that examines
Iceland’s drug culture from within.
Sea route popular
The reported 20.7 kg of cocaine was
found at the airport, which sug-
gests that none of the smuggling
was occurring via shipping on sea
routes. Reynir says, “When I was do-
ing my research, much more [drugs
were] coming in with foreign ships
than by plane.That was consid-
ered the best way to do it. Some-
times the drugs would be attached
under the ship, and divers would
fetch it once it arrived in Iceland.”
Reports from the Society of Al-
coholism and Addiction suggest
that this year’s numbers of cocaine
addicted patients correlates with
the alleged increase in cocaine in
Iceland. Reynir emphasizes the im-
portance of “educating our young
people” in the face of such infor-
mation. For however much we may
still be operating within a guessing
game about the actual amount of co-
caine in Iceland, it is safe to assume
that a record in interception of the
drug by police is a good indicator
of the growth of Iceland’s much
larger underground drug scene.
14 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 15 — 2017
TIME CAPSULE
Gamla Bíó
Ingólfsstræti

Words: Hannah Jane Cohen
Photo: Art Bicnick
One of Reykjavík’s most exquisite
buildings, Gamla bíó (the Old Cin-
ema), is one of the those rare spots
that makes you forget you live in a
village at the end of the world. In-
stead, when you enter it, you feel like
you live in a cultivated city some-
where far away. It was built by the
Danish entrepreneur Peter Peters-
en in 1926, who in a very colonial-
overlord sort of way, named it Rey-
kjavíkur Biograftheater, and built
an apartment for himself on the top
floor. The first movie to be screened
there was the 1925 epic, ‘Ben-Hur: A
Tale of the Christ,’ which stars Ra-
mon Novarro (who was murdered
by two male prostitutes in 1968).
In 1980, the old hall ceased being a
cinema and came to house the Ice-
landic Opera. Now, with opera per-
formances having moved to Harpa,
it hosts concerts and conferences,
and Petersen’s apartment has been
turned into the rooftop terrace bar,
Petersen Svítan.
BRYGGJAN BRUGGHÚS * GRANDAGARÐI 8 101 REYKJAVÍK
00354 456 4040 * WWW.BRYGGJANBRUGGHUS.IS
DAILY TOURS ON THE HOUR BETWEEN 13-22
BEER TOUR
2O - 30 MIN TOUR INCLUDING A 3 OR 6
BEER FLIGHT MENU FROM OUR MICRO BREWERY.
2.900/5.400 KR.
DOCKSIDE BREWERY & BISTRO
BISTRO
11.30-23.00
JAZZ EVERY
SUNDAY
AT 20.00
Reynir Traustason, Investigative journalist