Police are investigating 10-12 foreigners in an ongoing investigation into organised crime. They are currently still searching for five to six men affiliated with the three suspected of theft from shops in Selfoss over the weekend.
Of the three who were arrested, two were found to have active cases of COVID-19, which resulted in 16 police being put into quarantine. At the time of this writing, officials are still waiting on the results from the third suspect. They came to Iceland last Tuesday by flight from London.
Police chief Víðir Reynisson told Vísir, “We do not know all the details of the case. We are looking for five to six [people], so we are seeing if we have gotten in touch with everyone we wanted to.”
A report from police said that five men violated quarantine at about 2:00 this morning when they arrived in two taxis at a police station in Hverfisgata to report a change of address. When asked why they did not report the change of address by phone, they said that they considered this route simpler. The parties were then moved to a quarantine hotel, including the taxi drivers.
Police believe that these five are somehow connected to the suspects arrested in Selfoss, because they all came from the same country and arrived on the same flight. In total, police are investigating 10-12 men and women on the suspicion of being affiliated with organised crime.
It is worth noting that Mirabela Aurelia Blaga, a Romanian interpreter, border guard, and law student at the University of Reykjavík, says that she has felt growing concern amongst her fellow compatriots. The fear is that prejudice against Romanians will increase in Iceland. “I have noticed on Romanian pages on Facebook that people are worried about going to work tomorrow,” she told Vísir.
She added that many of her fellow Romanians were hardworking people, despite the generalisations and stereotypes that she has heard. “I hear stories every day. I get a lot of emails where people complain about being called gypsies or criminals at work,” she said.
Mirabella was called on by police in the course of the investigation to interpret. In the course of her translation work, she discovered that the men had been in quarantine, and two of them had COVID-19. She is now also in quarantine as well.
As ever, those looking for more information or advice should go to the Icelandic Government’s excellent COVID-19 help page.
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