In mid-June, a Belgian driver arrived at the Bietingen border post, on the German shore just opposite the canton of Schaffhouse, and handed over his transit documents with all the peace of mind in the world. On the paper it said it carried “dried hemp flowers.” German customs read it, looked at it, and went to open the van registered in the Netherlands. They found 17 boxes with 115 vacuum-sealed bags. In total, 117 kilos of cannabis. The man wanted to play by the rules. It went wrong.
The most striking thing is not the quantity, but the route. The drug had left the United States by plane and had passed through Zurich airport without major problem. It was destined for the Czech Republic. The truck driver was intercepted not by a routine check or by a technical detection, but because he himself wrote what he had on the document. In some countries that would be called bad luck. Here it's called seizure and detention.
Switzerland is reputed to be an orderly country where people follow the rules. Sometimes that works the other way around too: not everyone who goes through a Swiss customs office has a good understanding of what they're declaring or what the consequences are. In this case, the man passed through Zurich and was arrested in Germany. That already gives an idea of where the control holes were.
The case was published 20 minutes on June 26. Since then, the comment counter in the article has not stopped.