German police raided more than 200 cannabis plantations on Monday 28 January 2008 in an operation spanning 16 regional states with 1,500 investigators.[1][2] Officers seized mature plants, packets of dried drugs and growing equipment, with searches reaching as far as Rostock on the Baltic Sea.[1] In Aachen near the Belgian border, police stormed an apartment grow that neighbours had taken for a hobby garden.[1] The trigger for the raids was an internet grow shop’s customer lists, from which at least some of the targets were drawn.[1][2] Essen customs official Ulrich Schulze linked the crackdown to Dutch traders moving growing across the border as the Netherlands tightened its coffee-shop rules.[1][2] There was no word on how many arrests were made.[1][2]