"The coffee carriers played an increasingly brazen cat-and-mouse game with authorities that sounds straight out of a Hollywood thriller. Men would travel by foot, bicycle and car, even stowing coffee beans in an ambulance and a hearse. When police gave chase, the smugglers dropped sharpened metal spikes on the roadway to stop the pursuit. The German authorities, who were using specially equipped, high-speed vehicles, responded by attaching a plough to the front of their cars to clear the hazards, a creation locals called a "broom Porsche"."
