Police found more than 2,500 cannabis plants in a hall in the village of Fohrde near the city of Brandenburg in March 2010, after a routine traffic check on Highway 102 turned up the smell of cannabis.[1] Commissioner Marco Stein traced the sweetish scent to a hall that had once belonged to a construction supply shop, and two hours later officers of the criminal investigation department returned with a search warrant and broke down the doors.[1] Inside, cannabis sativa plants stood in neat rows under artificial light, watered by a system of tubes, from small shoots to bushes two metres tall.[1]

Investigators first looked at the 35-year-old tenant and several helpers, then three weeks later called on the car dealer K. and confiscated two Porsches, an Aston Martin and ten motor yachts; the public prosecutor suspected K. and his accomplices of earning at least 824,000 euros from the plantation since January 2009.[1] The site was one of the largest indoor plantations discovered in Germany to date.[1]

Context

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office had counted 26 large-scale growing operations with more than 1,000 plants in the previous year, up from 18, plus 316 smaller sites.[1]