Deutsche Post Opened 12,000 Packs of Drugs in 2018

According to a report in a June publication of the German newspaper Bild, the German postal service Deutsche Post opened 12,000 packages of drugs in 2018, indicating that the online drug trade is flourishing in Germany.

Employees of Deutsche Post opened 12,000 packages of drugs in 2018, according to a Bild report. The brief report explained that Deutsche Post employees receive more than 16,000 packages every day that lack the information required for delivery of the package. The packages often have incorrect or completely missing information on the sender of the package.

Under the Postal Act, Deutsche Post employees can open the undelivered packages in an attempt to find information on the intended recipient of the package. If the intended recipient’s information is not available inside the letter or package, the employees search for information on the sender of the package.

Last year, 16,000 packages opened by Deutsche Post employees contained drugs attributed to online drug sales. German authorities explained that the Postal Act has a serious flaw that limits the ability to initiate prosecutions based on the packages of drugs found by postal employees. A change to the Postal Act that will allow postal workers to report such packages to the police for prosecution will be introduced at an upcoming conference for German lawmakers.