On the morning of 16 March 2004, several hundred armed police officers with bulldozers entered the Freetown of Christiania in Copenhagen and tore down the market stalls of Pusher Street, the open cannabis market the Danish government called northern Europe’s largest.[1][2] About 50 cannabis dealers and lookouts, described as security guards who warned sellers of approaching police, were arrested in Christiania and elsewhere in Copenhagen and remanded in custody.[1] A same-day wire caption put the number taken in for preliminary questioning at 44.[2]

Pusher Street had sold cannabis openly since the mid-1970s, and in 2003 consisted of about 40 decorated stalls selling different kinds of cannabis.[1] The raid followed years of smaller police actions but was the first organised operation ordered to close the market for good.[1]

A later academic account dates a Pusher Street raid to 16 May 2004 with 60 dealers and 20 lookouts arrested.[3] Contemporary records, including a photo-agency caption dated 16 March 2004, place the closing raid in March, which this report follows.[1][2]