Police recently reported two Swedish Customs employees who grew cannabis plants on the job. The customs workers, based in the southern Swedish community of Helsingborg, said they grew the plants strictly for research purposes.
The marijuana plants were grown behind the closed doors of the Helsingborg Swedish Customs office. The two employees, who the police reported for professional misconduct, said they were conducting an experiment to find out how rapidly the plants grew.
In an interview with the Helsingborg Dagbladet newspaper, prosecutor Mats Eriksson said, “But there are also suspicions of narcotics crimes. In itself, it’s no serious narcotics crime; it’s not exactly like they had an amphetamine lab.”
Eriksson also said during his Helsingborg Dagbladet interview, “The serious thing is that this occurred at Swedish Customs and that it was during working hours.”
Rikskriminalpolisen, Sweden’s National Bureau of Investigation, said over 600 reports about illegal pot growing operations are sent to the police on an annual basis.
Malmö police have launched an investigation into the matter. The two employees have had their keys confiscated and have been temporarily replaced, but Swedish Customs authorities have not stated whether or not the employees have permanently lost their jobs, nor have they issued any other official statement on the find.