Customs officers of the Furth im Wald traffic control unit of the Regensburg main customs office seized 1,230 cannabis plants on the A3 near Hunderdorf on 2 November 2026[1][2][3][4][5], and published two photographs of them.[6] The plants had been carried from Austria into Germany in a small van.[1]

During the check of the Slovak-registered van the two men said they were carrying postal parcels from Austria to Germany for a logistics company.[1][7][3][5] On the load bed officers found several parcels wrapped in black foil addressed to recipients in Germany, and 13 boxes held 1,230 young cannabis plants.[1][7][3][5] The two men said they did not know what the parcels contained and showed a loading list and a lawyer’s letter saying the transport was permitted.[1][7][4][5]

Seedlings, not cuttings

Customs judged the plants by their actual stage of growth: they had been planted in soil and grown into independent young plants, so officers classed them as seedlings (Setzlinge), which count as cannabis plants.[1][5] A cutting (Steckling), a shoot without flowers or fruit, counts under the Cannabis Consumption Act as propagation material, but once planted and growing on its own it becomes a seedling; the label in a shop, an order or on a parcel does not decide this.[2] Importing seedlings into Germany is banned even from another EU state and whatever the number[1][2][5]; the rules letting adults grow three plants at home do not allow ordering plants from abroad, and customs may check consignments from other EU states because some bans remain despite free movement of goods.[2][5]

Customs opened criminal proceedings against the driver and his passenger[1][3][6][5] on suspicion of a breach of the Cannabis Consumption Act together with Bannbruch, the customs offence of evading import bans.[1][3] The two men were then allowed to continue their journey, and the case was referred to the Regensburg public prosecutor’s office.[1][7][4][5]