Nineteen people were sentenced to up to two-and-a-half years in prison each for tipping off hashish dealers at Copenhagen’s hippie enclave that police were heading their way.
Posted outside Christiania, known for its alternative lifestyle in the middle of Copenhagen, group members either used cellphones or walkie-talkies to tip off the vendors, who rushed to hide the drug.
Known as Christiania’s intelligence service, they ”prevented police from arresting dealers or seizing hashish that was being sold from the booths”, Judge Peter Lind Larsen said.
Since the early 1980s, residents, tourists and hashish dealers have openly bought and sold the drug, along with marijuana, from colourful booths in Christiania.
Though illegal, the sales were tolerated by police and successive governments until 2001, when the Danish government vowed to put a stop to the trade. In January, residents themselves tore down the booths because they feared police action.
Twenty men were accused of running the corps from July 2003 until their arrest in March 2004. During that time, the prosecution said at least three tonnes of hashish was sold. The lookouts worked in shifts and were paid 9 000 kroner (about R9 800) per month.
During the trial, the prosecution played recorded telephone conversations between group members.
The 19 men were given sentences of between one and two-and-a-half years in prison. One man was acquitted because the Copenhagen City Court found there was insufficient evidence against him.
Christiania took root in 1971 when dozens of hippies moved into a derelict 18th-century fort behind the capital’s old ramparts. The area became a counterculture oasis with psychedelic-colored buildings, free marijuana, no government, no cars and no police. — Sapa-AP