Customs officers arrested eight people aged 22 to 54 on suspicion of cultivating and dealing cannabis.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] The Frankfurt customs investigation office had been investigating the group since spring 2026 on behalf of the Saarbrücken prosecutor’s office.[8] The case began with a customs check near Pirmasens in May 2026, when officers found about 20 kilograms of marijuana in a car boot and arrested a suspected participant.[6][7][9] The suspects allegedly used vacant buildings for illegal plantations and sold the marijuana in the surrounding Greater Region and in France[1][10][2][5][7]; German investigators describe the suppliers as of Albanian origin.[11] The eight were six Albanian nationals, one German and one Italian.[8][12][5][9]

The raids

Officers searched eleven homes and business premises in Saarland and the Rhineland-Palatinate part of the Nordpfälzer Bergland[1][2][13][3][5][14][15][16][7], helped by the Federal Criminal Police Office crime-scene unit, the Saarbrücken main customs office and state police.[8][5][7] They dismantled five plantations with more than 2,300 plants: one in Saarlouis district, one in Saarpfalz-Kreis and three in Bad Kreuznach district.[4][17][18] Prosecutors said the largest was in Homburg.[10] At Jeckenbach, shortly after 6.30 am on the Tuesday, armed officers stormed a house with 200 to 300 plants[19], about 300 by the prosecutors’ count.[10][20][18]

Officers seized 11.5 kilograms of marijuana and one kilogram of hashish, together with 33 kilograms of amphetamine, 1.2 kilograms of MDMA and 500 grams of ecstasy tablets[1][2][13][3][4][5][16]; one account gives the hashish as just under one kilogram.[3] They also seized a tablet press, blank-firing and air weapons and a possibly live firearm[8][12][5][7], and about 22,000 euros in cash.[7]

The eight were brought before an investigating judge, who issued custody orders for all of them but suspended one under conditions, leaving seven in pretrial detention.[1][2][3][4][5][14][15][16][6][7][18] The authorities said the investigations are continuing.[8][10][2][12][5][7]

France

French authorities carried out parallel searches in the Grand Est at the same time and arrested 13 people.[1][10][2][3][5][14][15][16][6][7][21][9] Prosecutors and an investigating judge in Nancy, working with the German authorities, were investigating an Albanian criminal group based in Germany.[21] The raids were in Nancy, Custines, Maxéville, Essey-lès-Nancy, Frouard and Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, where more than 30 kg of drugs were seized.[21] Officers in France seized 31.4 kilos of cannabis along with ketamine, cocaine, a few grams of heroin and more than 17,000 euros.[9]

Eleven of the 13 were brought before the magistrates in Nancy and placed under formal investigation[21][22][9]; six were held in pretrial detention and the others placed under judicial supervision.[9][11] Prosecutors said the network was directed from a prison cell over Snapchat and Telegram by a man with several drug-trafficking convictions, stored drugs in many flats and distributed them across the Grand Est by couriers in rental vehicles.[9][11] The French charges cover importing, transporting and selling drugs, illegal possession of weapons and refusal to hand over an encryption key.[11]