Mr. Good: Cop or Crook? (2022) s01e03 Episode Script
The Connection
1
A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY SERIES
[Eirik Jensen.]
I just froze, and I got completely cold.
And then they slap the cuffs on, and then then I'm thrown into a security cell, and there I lay waiting to be transported again.
- And then I thought, "Shit, what is this?" - [door opens.]
[locks.]
During the first interrogations, I was confronted with allegations of smuggling hash and corruption.
And I answered them, as best I could.
I felt that regardless of what I said, no one believed me.
So I was very much mentally exhausted.
I had my belt and shoelaces and everything when I was down there, and the plan was clear.
But thanks to two amazing correctional officers who've probably seen this before, so they picked up the signs and grabbed me.
And forced me to play table tennis and work out in the gym and started fly-tying.
That saved me, for sure.
[clicks.]
THE ILA TALKS [detective in Norwegian.]
Y ou've never been caught.
- [Gjermund Cappelen.]
No.
No.
- [detective.]
Until now.
And I wonder why not.
[Cappelen.]
If we go into that then I want out.
[in English.]
Cappelen's statement has one purpose.
That is to gain benefits for himself, primarily a reduced sentence.
[Cappelen in Norwegian.]
He got so-and-so much per kilo.
- [detective.]
How much? - [Cappelen.]
Five-hundred kroner.
- [detective.]
Per kilo? - [Cappelen.]
Yes.
[Jensen in English.]
The guys looking for a reduced sentence are also completely capable of making false claims.
I can't even describe the betrayal.
Worst of all is that the person I trusted, that I helped and stood up for, that he would destroy my life.
I did not see that coming.
EIRIK JENSEN, THE ENIGMA [woman.]
I did not fall head over heels in love with Eirik.
It was a process, and we actually talked a lot about starting a relationship under the extenuating circumstances.
He was in the newspapers almost daily.
Wasn't a soul who didn't know who Eirik Jensen was.
And Eirik asked me several times, "Do you know what you're doing?" "Do you know what this could lead to?" Eirik's main concern was that, "If we start a relationship, then you have to stay.
" "I can't handle both the case and to be abandoned.
" [reporter in Norwegian.]
Eirik Jensen's trial begins in the Oslo District Court on January 9.
Jensen denies all charges of corruption and being an accessory to gross drug-related crimes.
The prosecution's most important witness is co-defendant Gjermund Cappelen, charged with smuggling tons of hashish with the help of Jensen.
BORDER CROSSING SWEDEN - NORWAY SVINESUND [reporter 2.]
In your opinion, how vital was Eirik Jensen to your operation? Absolutely critical.
[reporter 2.]
What amounts are we talking about? We are talking millions.
There's no hocus-pocus about it.
We met, and he got money.
[Benedict de Vibe in English.]
Cappelen wasn't looking to hurt Eirik Jensen.
But when the ball first started rolling, there was no way out.
And he couldn't explain those 20 years without involving him.
[Kaja de Vibe Malling.]
Prior to the trial, Cappelen was portrayed as a notorious liar in the media by Jensen's defence attorneys.
Meanwhile, he had been in countless interrogations, without access to documents and explained himself in detail about his own operation and relationship with Jensen.
So, for him, it was very important that the judges believed him.
[man.]
I first met Eirik Jensen when he was released from custody.
He was really down.
He was not able to understand what the case or accusations were based on, and he was very clear that it was not correct.
He had not done anything wrong, and he would not be convicted.
[Sidsel Katralen.]
I don't think it was about, "Do I get four years, eight years, 21 years?" For him, the consequences were so dire that it was a matter of life and death.
And his only alternative was, "You have to believe me.
" Prior to the district court proceedings, Eirik was not involved in his own case.
He had a dismissive attitude and "the lawyers will fix it.
" OSLO DISTRICT COUR JANUARY 2017 [reporter in Norwegian.]
We are here at the Oslo District Court.
Here the policeman Eirik Jensen will spend the next five months fighting the very serious charges brought against him.
[camera shutters clicking.]
[reporter in English.]
This case is historic.
Never before has a Norwegian policeman faced such serious charges as Eirik Jensen.
The interest in this case is enormous.
On the first day of the trial, already more than 3,000 articles had been written about Eirik Jensen and Gjermund Cappelen.
ONE OF THEM IS LYING [camera shutter clicks.]
We were also very curious how the first meeting between Eirik Jensen and Gjermund Cappelen would be.
[Ragna Lise Vikre.]
I don't think I'll ever forget the glances those guys gave to each other.
Cappelen had a questioning look.
Like he was trying to understand the extent of Eirik's rage.
Court is now in session.
Gjermund Cappelen, please rise.
- Your full name is? - Gjermund Erik Cappelen.
[Kim Heger.]
There's something called an occupation that we usually ask about.
- I have no occupation.
- [Heger.]
No? No.
[Heger.]
I will now ask the attorney general to read the charges.
Please.
Thank you.
From '93, '94 until November the 14th, 2013, he was behind the organised smuggling or attempted smuggling of a large quantity of hashish to Norway.
Do you plead guilty or not guilty of this charge? Guilty.
[Heger.]
Eirik Jensen, please rise.
In the time between 2004 until November 14, 2013, he assisted Gjermund Erik Cappelen's smuggling and attempted smuggling of a particularly large quantity of hashish to Norway.
[Heger.]
Jensen, do you plead guilty of this charge? No.
[Heger.]
No.
[Torgrim Eggen.]
This case can basically be boiled down to two stories.
Gjermund Cappelen claims to have imported huge amounts of hash with the assistance of Eirik Jensen.
They were partners.
Jensen couldn't be replaced.
Then everything would fall apart.
Eirik Jensen, on his side, claims that what Cappelen is saying is a lie, and that all contact between them was informant based.
"Once upon a time.
" That is how Gjermund Cappelen's statement or story should have begun.
I am convinced that Gjermund Cappelen has put a lot of thought into the organisation he built.
It is downright professional.
There is extensive travel activity to the Netherlands, to Denmark to Spain and Germany.
He is careful in choosing people close to him.
[camera shutter clicks.]
Additionally, he brings in hash of exceptionally high quality.
There is nothing to indicate this is an improvised business and that he picked up hash wherever.
Kripos made a statement saying that they have rarely seen hash of this quality before.
Gjermund Cappelen is clearly the boss of the operation.
He controls the others in the network, including Eirik Jensen.
- Eirik Jensen does not control Cappelen.
- [camera shutter clicks.]
- It's the other way around.
- [camera shutter clicks.]
INTERVIEWS [Martine Aurdal.]
There is an enormous amount of underlying investigative work and circumstantial evidence, the likes of which have probably never been seen in a Norwegian court.
Every day when the parties enter the court, heavy-wheeled suitcases with documents are brought in.
Yet, the one piece of overwhelming evidence is still missing.
The so-called smoking gun that every detective dreams about.
And the circumstantial evidence is dependent on the prosecutors demonstrating the weaknesses in Jensen's statement.
The amount of contact between Cappelen and Eirik Jensen was enormous.
The number of messages sent by policeman Eirik Jensen is almost the same amount as Cappelen's wife, who Cappelen has small children with and someone who Cappelen assumingly communicates a lot with.
Some of probably the most important evidence in the case is found in the text messages.
LOT NUMBER, DATE, DAY, TIME, SENDER FROM JENSEN, FROM CAPPELEN [Aurdal.]
The case contains thousands of communications between Cappelen and Eirik Jensen.
Many of them are written in some type of code - [typing.]
- [chiming.]
GOOD! MIGHT WORK ON THE HOUSE TOMORROW THAT'S GREAT.
GOOD WORKING CONDITIONS ARE FORECAS where the two defendants have completely different explanations of what the code means.
[chimes.]
- [types.]
- [chimes.]
Cappelen has explained that almost all of the text messages between Jensen and Cappelen are about the drug operation.
There are messages where Jensen nags about smuggling.
[chiming.]
There are numerous messages from Jensen where he gives Cappelen the impression that Jensen has control of the situation.
That there's nothing to worry about.
[chiming.]
GOOD CONDITIONS IN THE FOREST NOW SUNNY AND SAILING WEATHER FOR ABOUT 2 WEEKS [Aurdal.]
Subsequently, after a delivery, there is a series of messages from Jensen, where according to Cappelen, he's nagging for payment.
[chiming.]
ANYTHING HAPPENING TODAY? HI.
! ANY IDEA ABOUT WHAT TIME? [John Christian Elden.]
Jensen explained that there was every reason to contact Cappelen, because he was asked by colleagues to provide information on a police operation, which he did.
All of this is done in the shadows.
It can be small pieces.
Because this is an intelligence puzzle where you have a certain amount of informants operating in many different scenarios.
And suddenly, you get a piece of information that fits with another bit of information, and most of this you keep in your head.
Jensen, for his part, claims that it was never about drug smuggling, but that they had "flower language," which he calls it.
Because that's what he usually uses with his informants, Jensen says.
So that they wouldn't be exposed as police informants.
[Jensen.]
I was trained to use it in Denmark at an undercover course in 1993, I believe.
That's when we started with these short messages that were understandable for those who needed to understand and incomprehensible for those who didn't.
Firstly, we have to make sure that the informant is never revealed.
Additionally, there's another situation to take into account.
And that's that the informant gets approached, and they start checking his phone.
You can't have messages saying, "You can go into Ola now," because that screams police.
So you have to use a language that can have many different explanations, also that it is criminal.
[chiming.]
THE SNOW SUCKS So it's quite common to use these codes.
There are two versions of this story.
The texts and contact were either about the smuggling of drugs, or it was about informant activities.
It's one or the other.
[reporter.]
Eirik Jensen attacked the investigation carried out by the police's Internal Affairs unit during his open statement today.
Jensen claims that their contact was related to police business.
They've never been in that world that my case is about.
Namely, how are informants used? What is the codex? What is logical in that world? The courts and lawyers don't understand this.
And you have to understand this, otherwise, you can't make a correct judgment.
One of the unique things about this case is the insight into the police informant activities.
Out of consideration for the informants and their handlers, this information is rarely presented in a court of law ever.
But here, it's the main focus of the case.
It gives us a unique insight into a world we rarely get to see.
[engine revving.]
[John Malden.]
You always tell your informant, "You have to stop committing crimes if we're gonna work together, period.
" But you can't run around arresting your informant all the time.
Then you'll never know anything.
And then there are informants who work with the police to get their competitor arrested.
So it's always a game, and there are some that pay and some that win.
That's just how it is.
[Paul Larsson.]
Informants often have their own agenda for being informants.
One of the things they do is, of course, to snitch on others in the same business or to take advantage in other ways.
The police know all about this, of course.
We know.
[sighs.]
It also sort of contradicts basic, should we call it judicial ideals and also police ideals, to use these types of methods.
[Shahid Rasool.]
I received offers multiple times during interrogations.
One of them told me, "Shahid, have you thought about why other enforcers are not doing time?" Then they say, "You should think about it, then" "We'll look the other way to what you're doing, then you'll help us?" And that's word for word what they told me.
So that means I could work as I wanted.
Earn millions, keep building and building me up, as long as I swept away my competitors.
So I could have lied and made up a bunch of fairy tales.
I didn't need to serve 12 years.
Could have walked right out.
But I didn't tell any fairy tales, so I was locked up for 12 years.
The Oslo police district's leadership were fully aware of what was happening, and they were informed about stuff, and as long as stuff was okay, then it was okay.
And when the results came, it was definitely okay.
The only time I nearly fell off my chair was when the judge asked Jensen if he knew about Cappelen's criminal operation.
And when, um, Jensen answered "no" to that.
[chuckling.]
And then I thought, "That was not a smart move," I thought.
[laughs.]
[reporter.]
It seemed like the judges found this strange.
That Jensen never realized that Cappelen was a career criminal, a major criminal figure.
Why is Jensen denying that he knew what Cappelen was doing? We believe he's denying this because it is a requirement for acquittal.
[De Vibe.]
That Jensen said when he took the stand, "I didn't even know he was involved with hash.
" So you could ask if he already shot himself in the foot.
[woman in Norwegian.]
How is it possible that you didn't know about Cappelen's involvement with drugs? [in English.]
I've said that my gut told me he was hiding something.
But a gut feeling isn't enough to sacrifice a good informant.
What I did was check out intelligence files for notes that Cappelen was dealing in something.
There wasn't any.
There wasn't a single file on Cappelen at that time.
[Elden.]
This general allegation that yeah, yeah.
We've all heard of Cappelen's involvement with drugs wasn't even true.
When we look into these years, out in the 2000's until when Jensen was arrested, no one had heard of or was running any drug operation against Cappelen at the time.
So that Jensen hadn't heard was no stranger than anyone else in the police not hearing it.
No one else in the police had heard of it.
So when you have X amount of informants, you don't want to shorten their life.
So you ask what you are obligated to ask about.
And then you say, "Copy, out.
" And as long as no other informants are talking about your informant and say that he's up to no good, then it doesn't matter what I think.
He gave me an explanation, and he's providing information that enables us to do our social responsibility.
That's how it's supposed to work.
So if not, if you kill every informant you have, because you have a suspicion, then the door is shut.
[Vikre.]
Eirik and his defence attorneys were too focused on Eirik coming out of this case without a single scratch.
I absolutely got the impression that they were going to go all in on acquittal.
Anything else was totally out of the question.
It was 21 years or nothing.
That's word for word.
[Aurdal.]
The timelines are the most important exhibit in the case.
They compare text messages between Eirik Jensen and Gjermund Cappelen, with delivery times of drug shipments to Norway.
Eirik Jensen sends a series of messages that all is quiet and peaceful, and placed like that in a timeline, they seem, in my opinion, like heartbeats.
Especially when we compare this with our witness statements.
It forms a very clear pattern.
[chiming.]
EXPECTING TO START AT THE END OF THE WEEK [chiming.]
[chiming.]
NICE, HAVEN'T HEARD ANYTHING.
WILL LET YOU KNOW IF THERE IS WORK OCTOBER 8 - AMSTERDAM CAPPELEN MEETS HASH SUPPLIER [chiming.]
GOOD STUFF.
.
WILL WORK OUTSIDE.
GREAT WEATHER FORECAS OCTOBER 13 IMPORT FROM THE NETHERLANDS 330 LBS.
OF HASHISH [Eggen.]
There are droves of messages between Cappelen and Jensen that are suspicious.
None of these are conclusive evidence by themselves.
Closest we get is probably the so-called Mr.
Good messages.
[Aurdal.]
Gjermund Cappelen does have a lot of code names on his phone.
He has saved one contact as "Mr.
Good.
" There is a lot of discussion in court about whether Mr.
Good could be Eirik Jensen.
THE LISTING OF A "MR.
GOOD" IN HIS PHONE IS [woman in Norwegian.]
Are you Mr.
Good? [in English.]
No, I am not Mr.
Good.
But they would very much like for me to appear to be Mr.
Good.
The reason it's interesting is because they need it to support the claim of complicity.
There's just one example where there is a warning.
That's the only one, I think, that can be defined as a warning.
The first thing I want to draw your attention towards is the shipment that arrived in December 2009.
Cappelen communicates with Jensen on December 2nd, saying that something that is happening before the weekend.
[chiming.]
SOMEONE MAY LOOK AT THE PROJEC BEFORE THE WEEKEND [chiming.]
And then the communication moves to the number linked to Mr.
Good.
[chiming.]
QUIET AS THE GRAVE HERE [Eggen.]
These "control" and "quiet" messages from Mr.
Good arrive at the same time as Cappelen is planning to smuggle 400 kilos of hash.
And if they could connect it to me, then everything else Cappelen is saying is true.
Language analysis has shown clear characteristics in Jensen's writing.
[typing.]
He has a tendency to use double false stops as spaces.
and sometimes adds a full stop before exclamation marks.
[typing.]
[De Vibe.]
A language expert concluded that there was a high probability that Jensen wrote those messages.
OK.
.
I'LL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT.
.
TALK LATER.
! YES IT LOOKS GOOD.
! [Jensen.]
There was analysis of used words and signs and so on and so forth.
And that's all they had to go on.
You can't say, "Oh, oh, I recognize it in the way it's written.
" "This is Eirik Jensen.
" It could have been anyone with an old Nokia that is pushing the period button a little extra long and then a few symbols next to it.
That's very typical of those phones.
[Aurdal.]
It came out early that Jensen got rid of the phone he used to keep in touch with Gjermund Cappelen when he was arrested at the time.
Jensen said it was about protecting lives and health.
Because there's a lot of information about Gjermund Cappelen and others on that phone, which is used to handle informants.
To get rid of a piece of evidence that actually supports your story, I find that strange.
I would have kept the phone because it could verify my my exact activities.
[Kristine Schilling.]
Eirik Jensen's statement is neither credible nor logical.
He throws away a phone to eliminate any trace between him and Cappelen.
He does this to make sure that he is not connected to the investigation into Cappelen's network.
We have, of course, heard from other officers about broken or discarded handler phones, but that is after the content was secured and all contact had been logged after the officer has verified the content.
[Eggen.]
Accountability is in essence the same as writing reports and so on, logging meetings, phone conversations and so on.
All the things we see on TV shows that police officers hate doing and would rather avoid, right? [chuckles.]
And Eirik Jensen was no exception.
[Johnny Brenna.]
Eirik was not good with admin, meaning that he wasn't good at writing reports.
What's called accountability.
Meaning that you are supposed to write and account for what you have done at all times.
He was more old school, where he had one-on-one meetings, brought informants home, was too close.
And you become very vulnerable in situations like that.
You don't have a line of retreat, and you can be vulnerable to accusations.
[De Vibe.]
What weakened Jensen's statement is that there is nothing verifiable about what he's been doing.
If there was something, it should have been noted.
There were many that were taken aback that it wasn't noted, since he claimed that this was one of his most important sources.
[Ole Jørgen Arvesen.]
Eirik knew very well what the rules were.
He was actually one of the people who were supposed to make sure we followed the rules.
That he never followed the rules himself, that's something I thought about a lot.
I had very little insight into what he was actually doing.
[Schilling.]
The relevant question to ask is why Eirik Jensen failed to follow procedure in his contact with Cappelen.
We believe there is only one reason.
The relationship developed into cooperation with Cappelen's operation.
And the informant-handler relationship turned into a cover story.
[Katralen.]
I think Eirik became discouraged and frustrated, because without naming any names, he sat with information about other handlers who've worked similar to Eirik Jensen, but said nothing about that in court.
So, for Eirik Jensen, I think it must have been very, very frustrating, because he was left standing alone.
The system doesn't have his back.
Not even his bosses at that time, who obviously [scoffs.]
It would have been strange if they didn't know how the informant handlers operated and what they did.
Even then, he's left standing alone.
They hide behind regulation and say, "We do this, but look at him.
" "He didn't do it, so he needs to take the fall.
" [Aurdal.]
Gjermund Cappelen received a shipment of 400 kilograms of hash on Monday, the 7th of December, 2009, according to the police.
[chiming.]
Internal Affairs stated that Eirik Jensen most likely met with Gjermund Cappelen on Wednesday, December 9, 2009.
After the supposed meeting, Eirik Jensen begins sending a series of messages to Cappelen.
- [chimes.]
- And they are quite similar.
[chiming.]
Internal Affairs believe this clearly means that he has counted the money.
It should have been 100,000.
That there was only 90, and that he's nagging to get the rest.
[Jensen.]
They referred to a specific date, and my statement is that Cappelen gave information about some test routes.
But but nothing ever came of it, I think.
I am of the opinion that that was affirmation to Cappelen, a pat on the back that it had worked.
Uh, and then you have to reflect on.
It sounds like an odd statement, but that's the statement I made, and the statement I believe is right.
Gjermund Cappelen claims that Eirik Jensen got 500 kroner per kilo he smuggled into the country since the '90s.
That would mean that tens of millions of kroner should be visible through excess spending or exist somewhere.
The Internal Affairs investigation revealed large and abnormal cash expenditure by Jensen from 2004 to 2013.
Jensen has spent more money than he earned as a policeman, and the over-expenditure was possible due to a steady cash flow.
[Jensen.]
I've been working since I was 16 years old and put money aside.
I received a lot of money from my parents.
I made money as a diver for years.
It adds up when you're paid 1,500 to 2,000 kroner per job.
[Aurdal.]
A key element is Jensen's cash deposits.
He made dubious cash deposits by travelling from place to place, depositing small amounts in different places.
FEBRUARY 15, 2012 MAY 4, 2012 MAY 25, 2012 That's not how most of us handle our money, and obviously suspicious for the detectives.
[Jensen.]
The reason for the deposits at different times in different places is because, and I haven't told many about this, but we knew that a Pakistani contact with ties to the B gang worked at DNB, my bank.
In this line of work, you become semi-paranoid.
You usually practice the same safety routines you hammer into your informants.
The conclusion is Jensen chose to have a cash economy over a period of time and with a size that we only see in criminals.
Eirik Jensen has failed to provide any evidence to substantiate that the money came from any other source than what we claim, namely Cappelen.
And the money trail ceased after Cappelen's arrest, meaning Jensen no longer had access to cash.
[Aurdal.]
The police found 34,000 kroner hidden in the wall when Eirik was arrested at his home.
THE MONEY WAS WELL HIDDEN [Jensen.]
This was an escape box.
Now we're in a world that no one has been in, in Norway.
Being on assignment 24 hours a day, looking after two people.
If anything happened, it was my job to show up.
And then I needed that cash.
[Roger Stubberud.]
Eirik and I were working on a case where there was a risk for the person involved of being exposed.
Eirik had put together a so-called exit strategy, where this person would get to a safe place on short notice.
Possibly leave the country or to another place in the country.
I think it was somewhere between 30 and 40,000 kroner.
That this became a big issue was probably because it's the only money they ever found.
[Aurdal.]
It seemed very suspicious to have money in the wall like that.
And Eirik Jensen did admit to having received the money from Gjermund Cappelen.
Cappelen says that this was payment for drug smuggling.
Jensen says that it was repayment of a loan he supposedly gave Gjermund Cappelen.
[Cecilie Blegeberg.]
I just laughed.
Why would Cappelen borrow money from Eirik Jensen? He has loads of money during the time I was with Eirik.
Cappelen should never have needed to borrow money from Eirik.
Eirik Jensen's statement that Cappelen needed to borrow 30,000 is not credible.
Cappelen did not need cash.
- [camera shutter clicks.]
- The whole house was full of money.
There was money all over the place.
He had more than enough cash.
[reporter in Norwegian.]
Jensen is charged with receiving 2.
1 million kroner.
Cappelen claims, among other things, to have paid the bill when Eirik renovated the bathroom at the farmhouse where he used to live.
[in English.]
The prosecution's strongest evidence in this case is the renovation of Eirik Jensen's now infamous bathroom.
RENOVATION OF BATHROOM.
ÅRHUS FARM 2005/2006 [Eggen.]
Eirik Jensen and his girlfriend wanted to renovate the bathroom.
It resulted in the possibly most infamous bathroom renovation in criminal history.
[De Vibe Malling.]
Cappelen talks about this during the Internal Affairs interrogations, long before Jensen is asked about it.
He tells about the cooperation during the interrogations.
"Yes, by the way, I've also renovated a bathroom for him on his farm.
" I did him a favour by making sure that it was painted and that he got new pipes.
That they made a bathroom and it was made by my people.
[Eggen.]
One of the contractors involved with the bathroom was supposed to get 120,000 for the job, but the bill was never paid.
According to Jensen, there was a conflict between the two of them because apparently, the tiler was incompetent.
And to be frank about it, I do what many other people who've been in conflict with their contractor does.
You don't ask to pay the bill.
You expect him to mail it at his convenience.
[in Norwegian.]
Jensen describes as the reason for the missing payment, but I've never heard of a contractor being so angry that he didn't want 120,000 kroner for a completed job.
[in English.]
We weren't trying to wriggle out of the bill or anything, but we did have a bad relationship.
So in my mind, he needs to come with the bill.
But he didn't show up, and he died in the meantime.
Cappelen claims, which cannot be documented, that he paid it.
That's why it didn't come.
But we'll never know if Cappelen is telling the truth.
During the interrogation, Jensen says that the contractor did actually give him a receipt.
When it's Gjermund Cappelen's turn, he claims that yes, Jensen did get a receipt, but it's Gjermund Cappelen himself who wrote it, added some logos and signed it as Frank Olsen.
And the detectives found Gjermund Cappelen's fingerprint on the so-called Frank Olsen receipt.
LYING ABOUT THE BATHROOM [Jensen.]
Then there was the blunder I didn't remember.
That the receipt came from Cappelen.
So questionable, yes.
Criminal, no.
But because I didn't remember, because I was stressed at that time, it somehow became a decisive piece of evidence that I was lying.
THIS BATHROOM WAS PAYMEN FOR THE HASHISH COLLABORATION [Larsson.]
There is a common understanding of what corruption is.
On the subject of bathroom renovation and those kind of things, could by themselves seem relatively trivial.
But to do this as a policeman, to receive these things is, uh, totally different than as a civilian.
This is is, uh, unquestionably corruption, according to the law.
[woman.]
Court is adjourned.
[Stubberud.]
My impression of Eirik is very different.
Okay, okay, he was a bit of a "wheeler and dealer" guy.
Buying cheap and fixing things.
Yeah, definitively.
That he paid workers under the table, yeah.
And maybe received some money because he helped people.
That's Eirik.
But that he was knowingly corrupt? That he accepted money to give people advantages so they could run their criminal enterprise in peace or that he was an active part of drug smuggling? That's That's completely unimaginable that Eirik was a part of that.
[Leif Lier.]
He did so many good jobs, you know.
He provided so much information.
Both myself and I'm sure others too turned a blind eye.
I'm sure we can be criticized for this after the fact.
But I have never, not even once, suspected Eirik Jensen of importing or helping to import drugs.
That's what he fought against all those years.
He crossed the lines.
He broke the rules.
All right.
But drug smuggling, never in my life.
4 MONTHS LATER THE VERDIC [camera shutters clicking.]
The Oslo District Court will now deliver the verdict in the criminal trial against Gjermund Cappelen and Eirik Jensen.
The verdict goes as follow.
There is evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the relationship between Cappelen and Jensen never was an ordinary informant-handler relationship.
To the contrary, the court finds evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that Jensen deliberately gave Cappelen the impression that he could run his extensive hash operation with the help and support of Jensen.
The court finds it clear that Jensen's "quiet and sunshine messages" were nothing more than a signal to Cappelen that he was not on the police's radar, that he could safely bring in and handle the shipment.
They didn't believe anything.
In short.
Jensen, just like Mr.
Good, sent multiple messages to Cappelen about it being quiet.
For this reason, the court has no doubt that Mr.
Good is Jensen, and that Jensen was in the know about Cappelen's coded language about hash smuggling.
The verdict is unanimous, and I ask you all to rise for the verdict.
Gjermund Cappelen is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
Eirik Jensen is sentenced to 21 years of imprisonment.
[Vikre.]
Twenty-one years.
That's Eirik's entire life going to to hell right then and there.
[in Norwegian.]
Gjermund Cappelen was sentenced to 15 years.
He received a 30% sentence reduction for having confessed and for testifying about Eirik Jensen's role.
[Jensen in English.]
The fact that they don't believe you and when you know the other story is a lie, you become bitter, and you become angry.
You become frustrated.
You go through all emotions.
My immediate reaction was that it was wrong.
This thing about informants, which is the core of Eirik's statement, has in a way been rejected as not credible.
[Vikre.]
I believe Eirik worked too closely with not just Gjermund Cappelen, but also some of his other informants.
Eirik trusts people.
And it's kind of a paradox that these same qualities possibly contributed to Eirik being in this situation.
[Katralen.]
In my opinion, Eirik's Achilles' is his loyalty to the field of work he's been in for all these years, namely special operations, handling informants and policing.
[Jensen.]
I was on the brink, right on the edge.
And then a discovery was made that strengthened my statement.
And that, of course, awoke something in me.
And I am known to be a fighter.
And that was exactly what I needed.
Because now I can prove that Cappelen is lying.
CONTAINS RE-ENACTMENTS OF AUDIO AND EVENTS GJERMUND CAPPELEN DECLINED AN INTERVIEW
I just froze, and I got completely cold.
And then they slap the cuffs on, and then then I'm thrown into a security cell, and there I lay waiting to be transported again.
- And then I thought, "Shit, what is this?" - [door opens.]
[locks.]
During the first interrogations, I was confronted with allegations of smuggling hash and corruption.
And I answered them, as best I could.
I felt that regardless of what I said, no one believed me.
So I was very much mentally exhausted.
I had my belt and shoelaces and everything when I was down there, and the plan was clear.
But thanks to two amazing correctional officers who've probably seen this before, so they picked up the signs and grabbed me.
And forced me to play table tennis and work out in the gym and started fly-tying.
That saved me, for sure.
[clicks.]
THE ILA TALKS [detective in Norwegian.]
Y ou've never been caught.
- [Gjermund Cappelen.]
No.
No.
- [detective.]
Until now.
And I wonder why not.
[Cappelen.]
If we go into that then I want out.
[in English.]
Cappelen's statement has one purpose.
That is to gain benefits for himself, primarily a reduced sentence.
[Cappelen in Norwegian.]
He got so-and-so much per kilo.
- [detective.]
How much? - [Cappelen.]
Five-hundred kroner.
- [detective.]
Per kilo? - [Cappelen.]
Yes.
[Jensen in English.]
The guys looking for a reduced sentence are also completely capable of making false claims.
I can't even describe the betrayal.
Worst of all is that the person I trusted, that I helped and stood up for, that he would destroy my life.
I did not see that coming.
EIRIK JENSEN, THE ENIGMA [woman.]
I did not fall head over heels in love with Eirik.
It was a process, and we actually talked a lot about starting a relationship under the extenuating circumstances.
He was in the newspapers almost daily.
Wasn't a soul who didn't know who Eirik Jensen was.
And Eirik asked me several times, "Do you know what you're doing?" "Do you know what this could lead to?" Eirik's main concern was that, "If we start a relationship, then you have to stay.
" "I can't handle both the case and to be abandoned.
" [reporter in Norwegian.]
Eirik Jensen's trial begins in the Oslo District Court on January 9.
Jensen denies all charges of corruption and being an accessory to gross drug-related crimes.
The prosecution's most important witness is co-defendant Gjermund Cappelen, charged with smuggling tons of hashish with the help of Jensen.
BORDER CROSSING SWEDEN - NORWAY SVINESUND [reporter 2.]
In your opinion, how vital was Eirik Jensen to your operation? Absolutely critical.
[reporter 2.]
What amounts are we talking about? We are talking millions.
There's no hocus-pocus about it.
We met, and he got money.
[Benedict de Vibe in English.]
Cappelen wasn't looking to hurt Eirik Jensen.
But when the ball first started rolling, there was no way out.
And he couldn't explain those 20 years without involving him.
[Kaja de Vibe Malling.]
Prior to the trial, Cappelen was portrayed as a notorious liar in the media by Jensen's defence attorneys.
Meanwhile, he had been in countless interrogations, without access to documents and explained himself in detail about his own operation and relationship with Jensen.
So, for him, it was very important that the judges believed him.
[man.]
I first met Eirik Jensen when he was released from custody.
He was really down.
He was not able to understand what the case or accusations were based on, and he was very clear that it was not correct.
He had not done anything wrong, and he would not be convicted.
[Sidsel Katralen.]
I don't think it was about, "Do I get four years, eight years, 21 years?" For him, the consequences were so dire that it was a matter of life and death.
And his only alternative was, "You have to believe me.
" Prior to the district court proceedings, Eirik was not involved in his own case.
He had a dismissive attitude and "the lawyers will fix it.
" OSLO DISTRICT COUR JANUARY 2017 [reporter in Norwegian.]
We are here at the Oslo District Court.
Here the policeman Eirik Jensen will spend the next five months fighting the very serious charges brought against him.
[camera shutters clicking.]
[reporter in English.]
This case is historic.
Never before has a Norwegian policeman faced such serious charges as Eirik Jensen.
The interest in this case is enormous.
On the first day of the trial, already more than 3,000 articles had been written about Eirik Jensen and Gjermund Cappelen.
ONE OF THEM IS LYING [camera shutter clicks.]
We were also very curious how the first meeting between Eirik Jensen and Gjermund Cappelen would be.
[Ragna Lise Vikre.]
I don't think I'll ever forget the glances those guys gave to each other.
Cappelen had a questioning look.
Like he was trying to understand the extent of Eirik's rage.
Court is now in session.
Gjermund Cappelen, please rise.
- Your full name is? - Gjermund Erik Cappelen.
[Kim Heger.]
There's something called an occupation that we usually ask about.
- I have no occupation.
- [Heger.]
No? No.
[Heger.]
I will now ask the attorney general to read the charges.
Please.
Thank you.
From '93, '94 until November the 14th, 2013, he was behind the organised smuggling or attempted smuggling of a large quantity of hashish to Norway.
Do you plead guilty or not guilty of this charge? Guilty.
[Heger.]
Eirik Jensen, please rise.
In the time between 2004 until November 14, 2013, he assisted Gjermund Erik Cappelen's smuggling and attempted smuggling of a particularly large quantity of hashish to Norway.
[Heger.]
Jensen, do you plead guilty of this charge? No.
[Heger.]
No.
[Torgrim Eggen.]
This case can basically be boiled down to two stories.
Gjermund Cappelen claims to have imported huge amounts of hash with the assistance of Eirik Jensen.
They were partners.
Jensen couldn't be replaced.
Then everything would fall apart.
Eirik Jensen, on his side, claims that what Cappelen is saying is a lie, and that all contact between them was informant based.
"Once upon a time.
" That is how Gjermund Cappelen's statement or story should have begun.
I am convinced that Gjermund Cappelen has put a lot of thought into the organisation he built.
It is downright professional.
There is extensive travel activity to the Netherlands, to Denmark to Spain and Germany.
He is careful in choosing people close to him.
[camera shutter clicks.]
Additionally, he brings in hash of exceptionally high quality.
There is nothing to indicate this is an improvised business and that he picked up hash wherever.
Kripos made a statement saying that they have rarely seen hash of this quality before.
Gjermund Cappelen is clearly the boss of the operation.
He controls the others in the network, including Eirik Jensen.
- Eirik Jensen does not control Cappelen.
- [camera shutter clicks.]
- It's the other way around.
- [camera shutter clicks.]
INTERVIEWS [Martine Aurdal.]
There is an enormous amount of underlying investigative work and circumstantial evidence, the likes of which have probably never been seen in a Norwegian court.
Every day when the parties enter the court, heavy-wheeled suitcases with documents are brought in.
Yet, the one piece of overwhelming evidence is still missing.
The so-called smoking gun that every detective dreams about.
And the circumstantial evidence is dependent on the prosecutors demonstrating the weaknesses in Jensen's statement.
The amount of contact between Cappelen and Eirik Jensen was enormous.
The number of messages sent by policeman Eirik Jensen is almost the same amount as Cappelen's wife, who Cappelen has small children with and someone who Cappelen assumingly communicates a lot with.
Some of probably the most important evidence in the case is found in the text messages.
LOT NUMBER, DATE, DAY, TIME, SENDER FROM JENSEN, FROM CAPPELEN [Aurdal.]
The case contains thousands of communications between Cappelen and Eirik Jensen.
Many of them are written in some type of code - [typing.]
- [chiming.]
GOOD! MIGHT WORK ON THE HOUSE TOMORROW THAT'S GREAT.
GOOD WORKING CONDITIONS ARE FORECAS where the two defendants have completely different explanations of what the code means.
[chimes.]
- [types.]
- [chimes.]
Cappelen has explained that almost all of the text messages between Jensen and Cappelen are about the drug operation.
There are messages where Jensen nags about smuggling.
[chiming.]
There are numerous messages from Jensen where he gives Cappelen the impression that Jensen has control of the situation.
That there's nothing to worry about.
[chiming.]
GOOD CONDITIONS IN THE FOREST NOW SUNNY AND SAILING WEATHER FOR ABOUT 2 WEEKS [Aurdal.]
Subsequently, after a delivery, there is a series of messages from Jensen, where according to Cappelen, he's nagging for payment.
[chiming.]
ANYTHING HAPPENING TODAY? HI.
! ANY IDEA ABOUT WHAT TIME? [John Christian Elden.]
Jensen explained that there was every reason to contact Cappelen, because he was asked by colleagues to provide information on a police operation, which he did.
All of this is done in the shadows.
It can be small pieces.
Because this is an intelligence puzzle where you have a certain amount of informants operating in many different scenarios.
And suddenly, you get a piece of information that fits with another bit of information, and most of this you keep in your head.
Jensen, for his part, claims that it was never about drug smuggling, but that they had "flower language," which he calls it.
Because that's what he usually uses with his informants, Jensen says.
So that they wouldn't be exposed as police informants.
[Jensen.]
I was trained to use it in Denmark at an undercover course in 1993, I believe.
That's when we started with these short messages that were understandable for those who needed to understand and incomprehensible for those who didn't.
Firstly, we have to make sure that the informant is never revealed.
Additionally, there's another situation to take into account.
And that's that the informant gets approached, and they start checking his phone.
You can't have messages saying, "You can go into Ola now," because that screams police.
So you have to use a language that can have many different explanations, also that it is criminal.
[chiming.]
THE SNOW SUCKS So it's quite common to use these codes.
There are two versions of this story.
The texts and contact were either about the smuggling of drugs, or it was about informant activities.
It's one or the other.
[reporter.]
Eirik Jensen attacked the investigation carried out by the police's Internal Affairs unit during his open statement today.
Jensen claims that their contact was related to police business.
They've never been in that world that my case is about.
Namely, how are informants used? What is the codex? What is logical in that world? The courts and lawyers don't understand this.
And you have to understand this, otherwise, you can't make a correct judgment.
One of the unique things about this case is the insight into the police informant activities.
Out of consideration for the informants and their handlers, this information is rarely presented in a court of law ever.
But here, it's the main focus of the case.
It gives us a unique insight into a world we rarely get to see.
[engine revving.]
[John Malden.]
You always tell your informant, "You have to stop committing crimes if we're gonna work together, period.
" But you can't run around arresting your informant all the time.
Then you'll never know anything.
And then there are informants who work with the police to get their competitor arrested.
So it's always a game, and there are some that pay and some that win.
That's just how it is.
[Paul Larsson.]
Informants often have their own agenda for being informants.
One of the things they do is, of course, to snitch on others in the same business or to take advantage in other ways.
The police know all about this, of course.
We know.
[sighs.]
It also sort of contradicts basic, should we call it judicial ideals and also police ideals, to use these types of methods.
[Shahid Rasool.]
I received offers multiple times during interrogations.
One of them told me, "Shahid, have you thought about why other enforcers are not doing time?" Then they say, "You should think about it, then" "We'll look the other way to what you're doing, then you'll help us?" And that's word for word what they told me.
So that means I could work as I wanted.
Earn millions, keep building and building me up, as long as I swept away my competitors.
So I could have lied and made up a bunch of fairy tales.
I didn't need to serve 12 years.
Could have walked right out.
But I didn't tell any fairy tales, so I was locked up for 12 years.
The Oslo police district's leadership were fully aware of what was happening, and they were informed about stuff, and as long as stuff was okay, then it was okay.
And when the results came, it was definitely okay.
The only time I nearly fell off my chair was when the judge asked Jensen if he knew about Cappelen's criminal operation.
And when, um, Jensen answered "no" to that.
[chuckling.]
And then I thought, "That was not a smart move," I thought.
[laughs.]
[reporter.]
It seemed like the judges found this strange.
That Jensen never realized that Cappelen was a career criminal, a major criminal figure.
Why is Jensen denying that he knew what Cappelen was doing? We believe he's denying this because it is a requirement for acquittal.
[De Vibe.]
That Jensen said when he took the stand, "I didn't even know he was involved with hash.
" So you could ask if he already shot himself in the foot.
[woman in Norwegian.]
How is it possible that you didn't know about Cappelen's involvement with drugs? [in English.]
I've said that my gut told me he was hiding something.
But a gut feeling isn't enough to sacrifice a good informant.
What I did was check out intelligence files for notes that Cappelen was dealing in something.
There wasn't any.
There wasn't a single file on Cappelen at that time.
[Elden.]
This general allegation that yeah, yeah.
We've all heard of Cappelen's involvement with drugs wasn't even true.
When we look into these years, out in the 2000's until when Jensen was arrested, no one had heard of or was running any drug operation against Cappelen at the time.
So that Jensen hadn't heard was no stranger than anyone else in the police not hearing it.
No one else in the police had heard of it.
So when you have X amount of informants, you don't want to shorten their life.
So you ask what you are obligated to ask about.
And then you say, "Copy, out.
" And as long as no other informants are talking about your informant and say that he's up to no good, then it doesn't matter what I think.
He gave me an explanation, and he's providing information that enables us to do our social responsibility.
That's how it's supposed to work.
So if not, if you kill every informant you have, because you have a suspicion, then the door is shut.
[Vikre.]
Eirik and his defence attorneys were too focused on Eirik coming out of this case without a single scratch.
I absolutely got the impression that they were going to go all in on acquittal.
Anything else was totally out of the question.
It was 21 years or nothing.
That's word for word.
[Aurdal.]
The timelines are the most important exhibit in the case.
They compare text messages between Eirik Jensen and Gjermund Cappelen, with delivery times of drug shipments to Norway.
Eirik Jensen sends a series of messages that all is quiet and peaceful, and placed like that in a timeline, they seem, in my opinion, like heartbeats.
Especially when we compare this with our witness statements.
It forms a very clear pattern.
[chiming.]
EXPECTING TO START AT THE END OF THE WEEK [chiming.]
[chiming.]
NICE, HAVEN'T HEARD ANYTHING.
WILL LET YOU KNOW IF THERE IS WORK OCTOBER 8 - AMSTERDAM CAPPELEN MEETS HASH SUPPLIER [chiming.]
GOOD STUFF.
.
WILL WORK OUTSIDE.
GREAT WEATHER FORECAS OCTOBER 13 IMPORT FROM THE NETHERLANDS 330 LBS.
OF HASHISH [Eggen.]
There are droves of messages between Cappelen and Jensen that are suspicious.
None of these are conclusive evidence by themselves.
Closest we get is probably the so-called Mr.
Good messages.
[Aurdal.]
Gjermund Cappelen does have a lot of code names on his phone.
He has saved one contact as "Mr.
Good.
" There is a lot of discussion in court about whether Mr.
Good could be Eirik Jensen.
THE LISTING OF A "MR.
GOOD" IN HIS PHONE IS [woman in Norwegian.]
Are you Mr.
Good? [in English.]
No, I am not Mr.
Good.
But they would very much like for me to appear to be Mr.
Good.
The reason it's interesting is because they need it to support the claim of complicity.
There's just one example where there is a warning.
That's the only one, I think, that can be defined as a warning.
The first thing I want to draw your attention towards is the shipment that arrived in December 2009.
Cappelen communicates with Jensen on December 2nd, saying that something that is happening before the weekend.
[chiming.]
SOMEONE MAY LOOK AT THE PROJEC BEFORE THE WEEKEND [chiming.]
And then the communication moves to the number linked to Mr.
Good.
[chiming.]
QUIET AS THE GRAVE HERE [Eggen.]
These "control" and "quiet" messages from Mr.
Good arrive at the same time as Cappelen is planning to smuggle 400 kilos of hash.
And if they could connect it to me, then everything else Cappelen is saying is true.
Language analysis has shown clear characteristics in Jensen's writing.
[typing.]
He has a tendency to use double false stops as spaces.
and sometimes adds a full stop before exclamation marks.
[typing.]
[De Vibe.]
A language expert concluded that there was a high probability that Jensen wrote those messages.
OK.
.
I'LL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT.
.
TALK LATER.
! YES IT LOOKS GOOD.
! [Jensen.]
There was analysis of used words and signs and so on and so forth.
And that's all they had to go on.
You can't say, "Oh, oh, I recognize it in the way it's written.
" "This is Eirik Jensen.
" It could have been anyone with an old Nokia that is pushing the period button a little extra long and then a few symbols next to it.
That's very typical of those phones.
[Aurdal.]
It came out early that Jensen got rid of the phone he used to keep in touch with Gjermund Cappelen when he was arrested at the time.
Jensen said it was about protecting lives and health.
Because there's a lot of information about Gjermund Cappelen and others on that phone, which is used to handle informants.
To get rid of a piece of evidence that actually supports your story, I find that strange.
I would have kept the phone because it could verify my my exact activities.
[Kristine Schilling.]
Eirik Jensen's statement is neither credible nor logical.
He throws away a phone to eliminate any trace between him and Cappelen.
He does this to make sure that he is not connected to the investigation into Cappelen's network.
We have, of course, heard from other officers about broken or discarded handler phones, but that is after the content was secured and all contact had been logged after the officer has verified the content.
[Eggen.]
Accountability is in essence the same as writing reports and so on, logging meetings, phone conversations and so on.
All the things we see on TV shows that police officers hate doing and would rather avoid, right? [chuckles.]
And Eirik Jensen was no exception.
[Johnny Brenna.]
Eirik was not good with admin, meaning that he wasn't good at writing reports.
What's called accountability.
Meaning that you are supposed to write and account for what you have done at all times.
He was more old school, where he had one-on-one meetings, brought informants home, was too close.
And you become very vulnerable in situations like that.
You don't have a line of retreat, and you can be vulnerable to accusations.
[De Vibe.]
What weakened Jensen's statement is that there is nothing verifiable about what he's been doing.
If there was something, it should have been noted.
There were many that were taken aback that it wasn't noted, since he claimed that this was one of his most important sources.
[Ole Jørgen Arvesen.]
Eirik knew very well what the rules were.
He was actually one of the people who were supposed to make sure we followed the rules.
That he never followed the rules himself, that's something I thought about a lot.
I had very little insight into what he was actually doing.
[Schilling.]
The relevant question to ask is why Eirik Jensen failed to follow procedure in his contact with Cappelen.
We believe there is only one reason.
The relationship developed into cooperation with Cappelen's operation.
And the informant-handler relationship turned into a cover story.
[Katralen.]
I think Eirik became discouraged and frustrated, because without naming any names, he sat with information about other handlers who've worked similar to Eirik Jensen, but said nothing about that in court.
So, for Eirik Jensen, I think it must have been very, very frustrating, because he was left standing alone.
The system doesn't have his back.
Not even his bosses at that time, who obviously [scoffs.]
It would have been strange if they didn't know how the informant handlers operated and what they did.
Even then, he's left standing alone.
They hide behind regulation and say, "We do this, but look at him.
" "He didn't do it, so he needs to take the fall.
" [Aurdal.]
Gjermund Cappelen received a shipment of 400 kilograms of hash on Monday, the 7th of December, 2009, according to the police.
[chiming.]
Internal Affairs stated that Eirik Jensen most likely met with Gjermund Cappelen on Wednesday, December 9, 2009.
After the supposed meeting, Eirik Jensen begins sending a series of messages to Cappelen.
- [chimes.]
- And they are quite similar.
[chiming.]
Internal Affairs believe this clearly means that he has counted the money.
It should have been 100,000.
That there was only 90, and that he's nagging to get the rest.
[Jensen.]
They referred to a specific date, and my statement is that Cappelen gave information about some test routes.
But but nothing ever came of it, I think.
I am of the opinion that that was affirmation to Cappelen, a pat on the back that it had worked.
Uh, and then you have to reflect on.
It sounds like an odd statement, but that's the statement I made, and the statement I believe is right.
Gjermund Cappelen claims that Eirik Jensen got 500 kroner per kilo he smuggled into the country since the '90s.
That would mean that tens of millions of kroner should be visible through excess spending or exist somewhere.
The Internal Affairs investigation revealed large and abnormal cash expenditure by Jensen from 2004 to 2013.
Jensen has spent more money than he earned as a policeman, and the over-expenditure was possible due to a steady cash flow.
[Jensen.]
I've been working since I was 16 years old and put money aside.
I received a lot of money from my parents.
I made money as a diver for years.
It adds up when you're paid 1,500 to 2,000 kroner per job.
[Aurdal.]
A key element is Jensen's cash deposits.
He made dubious cash deposits by travelling from place to place, depositing small amounts in different places.
FEBRUARY 15, 2012 MAY 4, 2012 MAY 25, 2012 That's not how most of us handle our money, and obviously suspicious for the detectives.
[Jensen.]
The reason for the deposits at different times in different places is because, and I haven't told many about this, but we knew that a Pakistani contact with ties to the B gang worked at DNB, my bank.
In this line of work, you become semi-paranoid.
You usually practice the same safety routines you hammer into your informants.
The conclusion is Jensen chose to have a cash economy over a period of time and with a size that we only see in criminals.
Eirik Jensen has failed to provide any evidence to substantiate that the money came from any other source than what we claim, namely Cappelen.
And the money trail ceased after Cappelen's arrest, meaning Jensen no longer had access to cash.
[Aurdal.]
The police found 34,000 kroner hidden in the wall when Eirik was arrested at his home.
THE MONEY WAS WELL HIDDEN [Jensen.]
This was an escape box.
Now we're in a world that no one has been in, in Norway.
Being on assignment 24 hours a day, looking after two people.
If anything happened, it was my job to show up.
And then I needed that cash.
[Roger Stubberud.]
Eirik and I were working on a case where there was a risk for the person involved of being exposed.
Eirik had put together a so-called exit strategy, where this person would get to a safe place on short notice.
Possibly leave the country or to another place in the country.
I think it was somewhere between 30 and 40,000 kroner.
That this became a big issue was probably because it's the only money they ever found.
[Aurdal.]
It seemed very suspicious to have money in the wall like that.
And Eirik Jensen did admit to having received the money from Gjermund Cappelen.
Cappelen says that this was payment for drug smuggling.
Jensen says that it was repayment of a loan he supposedly gave Gjermund Cappelen.
[Cecilie Blegeberg.]
I just laughed.
Why would Cappelen borrow money from Eirik Jensen? He has loads of money during the time I was with Eirik.
Cappelen should never have needed to borrow money from Eirik.
Eirik Jensen's statement that Cappelen needed to borrow 30,000 is not credible.
Cappelen did not need cash.
- [camera shutter clicks.]
- The whole house was full of money.
There was money all over the place.
He had more than enough cash.
[reporter in Norwegian.]
Jensen is charged with receiving 2.
1 million kroner.
Cappelen claims, among other things, to have paid the bill when Eirik renovated the bathroom at the farmhouse where he used to live.
[in English.]
The prosecution's strongest evidence in this case is the renovation of Eirik Jensen's now infamous bathroom.
RENOVATION OF BATHROOM.
ÅRHUS FARM 2005/2006 [Eggen.]
Eirik Jensen and his girlfriend wanted to renovate the bathroom.
It resulted in the possibly most infamous bathroom renovation in criminal history.
[De Vibe Malling.]
Cappelen talks about this during the Internal Affairs interrogations, long before Jensen is asked about it.
He tells about the cooperation during the interrogations.
"Yes, by the way, I've also renovated a bathroom for him on his farm.
" I did him a favour by making sure that it was painted and that he got new pipes.
That they made a bathroom and it was made by my people.
[Eggen.]
One of the contractors involved with the bathroom was supposed to get 120,000 for the job, but the bill was never paid.
According to Jensen, there was a conflict between the two of them because apparently, the tiler was incompetent.
And to be frank about it, I do what many other people who've been in conflict with their contractor does.
You don't ask to pay the bill.
You expect him to mail it at his convenience.
[in Norwegian.]
Jensen describes as the reason for the missing payment, but I've never heard of a contractor being so angry that he didn't want 120,000 kroner for a completed job.
[in English.]
We weren't trying to wriggle out of the bill or anything, but we did have a bad relationship.
So in my mind, he needs to come with the bill.
But he didn't show up, and he died in the meantime.
Cappelen claims, which cannot be documented, that he paid it.
That's why it didn't come.
But we'll never know if Cappelen is telling the truth.
During the interrogation, Jensen says that the contractor did actually give him a receipt.
When it's Gjermund Cappelen's turn, he claims that yes, Jensen did get a receipt, but it's Gjermund Cappelen himself who wrote it, added some logos and signed it as Frank Olsen.
And the detectives found Gjermund Cappelen's fingerprint on the so-called Frank Olsen receipt.
LYING ABOUT THE BATHROOM [Jensen.]
Then there was the blunder I didn't remember.
That the receipt came from Cappelen.
So questionable, yes.
Criminal, no.
But because I didn't remember, because I was stressed at that time, it somehow became a decisive piece of evidence that I was lying.
THIS BATHROOM WAS PAYMEN FOR THE HASHISH COLLABORATION [Larsson.]
There is a common understanding of what corruption is.
On the subject of bathroom renovation and those kind of things, could by themselves seem relatively trivial.
But to do this as a policeman, to receive these things is, uh, totally different than as a civilian.
This is is, uh, unquestionably corruption, according to the law.
[woman.]
Court is adjourned.
[Stubberud.]
My impression of Eirik is very different.
Okay, okay, he was a bit of a "wheeler and dealer" guy.
Buying cheap and fixing things.
Yeah, definitively.
That he paid workers under the table, yeah.
And maybe received some money because he helped people.
That's Eirik.
But that he was knowingly corrupt? That he accepted money to give people advantages so they could run their criminal enterprise in peace or that he was an active part of drug smuggling? That's That's completely unimaginable that Eirik was a part of that.
[Leif Lier.]
He did so many good jobs, you know.
He provided so much information.
Both myself and I'm sure others too turned a blind eye.
I'm sure we can be criticized for this after the fact.
But I have never, not even once, suspected Eirik Jensen of importing or helping to import drugs.
That's what he fought against all those years.
He crossed the lines.
He broke the rules.
All right.
But drug smuggling, never in my life.
4 MONTHS LATER THE VERDIC [camera shutters clicking.]
The Oslo District Court will now deliver the verdict in the criminal trial against Gjermund Cappelen and Eirik Jensen.
The verdict goes as follow.
There is evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the relationship between Cappelen and Jensen never was an ordinary informant-handler relationship.
To the contrary, the court finds evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that Jensen deliberately gave Cappelen the impression that he could run his extensive hash operation with the help and support of Jensen.
The court finds it clear that Jensen's "quiet and sunshine messages" were nothing more than a signal to Cappelen that he was not on the police's radar, that he could safely bring in and handle the shipment.
They didn't believe anything.
In short.
Jensen, just like Mr.
Good, sent multiple messages to Cappelen about it being quiet.
For this reason, the court has no doubt that Mr.
Good is Jensen, and that Jensen was in the know about Cappelen's coded language about hash smuggling.
The verdict is unanimous, and I ask you all to rise for the verdict.
Gjermund Cappelen is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
Eirik Jensen is sentenced to 21 years of imprisonment.
[Vikre.]
Twenty-one years.
That's Eirik's entire life going to to hell right then and there.
[in Norwegian.]
Gjermund Cappelen was sentenced to 15 years.
He received a 30% sentence reduction for having confessed and for testifying about Eirik Jensen's role.
[Jensen in English.]
The fact that they don't believe you and when you know the other story is a lie, you become bitter, and you become angry.
You become frustrated.
You go through all emotions.
My immediate reaction was that it was wrong.
This thing about informants, which is the core of Eirik's statement, has in a way been rejected as not credible.
[Vikre.]
I believe Eirik worked too closely with not just Gjermund Cappelen, but also some of his other informants.
Eirik trusts people.
And it's kind of a paradox that these same qualities possibly contributed to Eirik being in this situation.
[Katralen.]
In my opinion, Eirik's Achilles' is his loyalty to the field of work he's been in for all these years, namely special operations, handling informants and policing.
[Jensen.]
I was on the brink, right on the edge.
And then a discovery was made that strengthened my statement.
And that, of course, awoke something in me.
And I am known to be a fighter.
And that was exactly what I needed.
Because now I can prove that Cappelen is lying.
CONTAINS RE-ENACTMENTS OF AUDIO AND EVENTS GJERMUND CAPPELEN DECLINED AN INTERVIEW