On 20 August 2026 the 17th criminal chamber of the Berlin Regional Court sentenced ten men, aged 25 to 51, for smuggling cannabis.[1] The three main defendants were convicted of gang dealing in cannabis in seven cases, and the court treated seven of the ten as members of the group.[1]
Mohamad G., 48, whom the court called a leading figure, received two aggregate sentences totalling 15 years and six months, including an older judgment.[1] Seven years and six months of that covered the first two acts, and eight years the later five.[2] Andrej F., 45, a sauna trader from Werneuchen, received eight years and nine months.[1][2] Dmitrij P., 41, the only one to confess in full, received six years and six months.[1] The other seven received between one year and six months and five years, for aiding or for dealing, and two of those sentences were suspended.[1] G. and F. must each pay 2.34 million euros in confiscated proceeds.[1]
The chamber found that between August 2023 and November 2024 the defendants brought 7.7 tonnes of marijuana into Germany in seven shipments, to sell in Berlin.[1] Six shipments of 1.1 tonnes each came by sea from Canada, hidden in cavities in wood loads and moved through front companies.[1] The origin of the first shipment could not be established, and investigators seized the last.[1] Märkische Oderzeitung, from courtroom 700 at the Moabit criminal court, says each load was 1.1 tonnes and arrived at F.’s properties in Werneuchen and Leuenberg.[2] The last six came through Hamburg and the Dreilinden customs office, and police stopped the unloading at Leuenberg on 27 November 2024.[2]
Presiding judge Nina Sommer said F. was paid at least 390,000 euros a delivery and rejected his claim that the wood was for sauna equipment.[2] A 28-year-old Polish defendant, who had meant to take about a third of a shipment at Leuenberg, got five years for dealing in six cases and stayed in custody, while P. was released from remand on strict reporting conditions.[2] Sommer called the case international organised crime, not a minor matter under the rules that allow some cannabis use.[1] The judgment, case 517 KLs 22/25, is not final and can be appealed to the Federal Court of Justice.[1]