Enlarge image
Bag of marijuana confiscated by customs (icon image)
Photo: Daniel Karmann/ dpa
Drug investigators found around 90 kilograms of marijuana and 60 kilograms of hashish in a truck that they had searched in Saarland.
The drugs were hidden in a steel cabinet among the vehicle's cargo.
The truck was on its way from Spain towards Frankfurt and had stopped on the premises of a company in Saarbrücken-Brebach to reload the drugs, it was said.
During the police operation on Tuesday evening, five men from Saarland between the ages of 33 and 35 were arrested on site.
This was announced by the Saarland State Police Headquarters, the Hessian State Criminal Police Office and the Frankfurt am Main Customs Investigation Office on Wednesday.
According to the information, the suspects initially tried to flee.
The suspicion against four men was confirmed after further evidence was found during searches of their homes.
They were due to be brought before the magistrate on Wednesday.
A 33-year-old was released for the time being.
The police in Saarland had been informed about the suspicious truck by the joint drug investigation group of the Hessian State Criminal Police Office.
A police helicopter from the Hessian police was also involved in the operation.
The suspects came from Saarbrücken, the Saarbrücken regional association and the Saarlouis district.
3.2 tons of cocaine in the sea
Just a week ago, New Zealand investigators fished 81 packets of cocaine out of the sea hundreds of kilometers northwest of the mainland in the Pacific.
The total weight was 3.2 tons.
The drugs had a street value of the equivalent of 294 million euros, said Police Chief Andrew Coster.
Authorities believed the cocaine was dumped at a "transit point" floating in the Pacific for pickup and then to Australia.
A police photo showed that the packages of drugs in the sea were held together by a net and held at the surface with yellow plastic floats.
A Batman symbol was emblazoned on some of the packages.
The New Zealand authorities owe the successful conclusion of "Operation Hydros" to tips from the Five Eyes secret service network, among other things.
The USA, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand have been exchanging information for decades.
Years in prison for cocaine dealers from Bavaria
In Germany, too, customs repeatedly confiscate large quantities of drugs.
In the trial of the largest cocaine find in Bavaria to date, the two accused were sentenced to several years in prison at the beginning of February.
The 23 and 26-year-old men were found guilty by the Aschaffenburg district court of aiding and abetting the trade in narcotics.
The 26-year-old is sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, his accomplice five years and two months.
In addition, both should make a withdrawal.
The verdict against the 26-year-old is already final.
According to the indictment, the two men tried last June to get more than a ton of cocaine out of a container that had been transported from the Dominican Republic to Lower Franconia via the port of Hamburg.
The drugs were hidden between medical devices intended for a Hessian company.
Investigators estimate the street sales value at almost 109 million euros.
The Munich customs investigation office spoke of the largest single amount of cocaine that had been seized in Bavaria to date.
Foreign authorities had given a tip for the find.
ala/dpa
