The Civil Guard, within the framework of the ACANTHA II operation, has dismantled an international network dedicated to the cultivation of large-scale marijuana in the provinces of Almería, Murcia and Alicante.
The 11 members of the network have been arrested in the towns of Níjar (Almería), San Juan, Elda, Petrer, Dénia and Campello (Alicante). Also, during the registrations, 53.824 marijuana plants, 71,5 kilograms of hashish, 2,5 kilograms of ecstasy and 33 kilograms of packaged marijuana, 6 vehicles, as well as technological material and a detonating gun were intervened.
In September of 2017 the agents of the Civil Guard finalized the first phase of the operation after locating in Níjar (Almería) a set of wintering farms that housed a total of 41.500 marijuana plants.
In this first phase the Civil Guard agents arrested a person who was on the farm and obtained indications of the existence of a network of people who organized themselves engaged in large-scale cultivation of marijuana and drug trafficking.
For all these reasons, the second phase of the operation began in order to determine the existence of an organization that would manage a larger number of marijuana plantations.
Following the first signs, the researchers moved to the town of Campohermoso (Níjar - Almería) where they located a new plantation in the place "La Serrata". This time it was a large greenhouse planted with few tomato plants in the front, with the intention of making it difficult to see from the outside the view of a large marijuana plantation in an advanced state of growth.
Two people were found on the farm who, on detecting the police presence, undertook their escape on separate roads, the first one on foot and the second in a vehicle parked at the rear of the greenhouse that even hit a flight in his flight. agent causing minor injuries.
The agents managed to locate and detain the person who undertook the flight on foot, verifying that it was a citizen of Eastern Europe who was in force a European Order of Detention and Delivery from the Belgian authorities.
In this farm a total of 8.110 marijuana plants were intervened in an advanced state of growth and new indications were obtained that indicated that they carried out this illegal activity also in the province of Alicante.
After a study of the information, new lines of research were established to identify all the members of the network. Through a high-tech security device that was used by one of the members of the group that was developing management tasks for the organization, the researchers obtained information regarding activities, places and dates, until they had complete knowledge about the routines and movements of this person
The result of the study of these data led the agents to a cannabis smoking club in San Juan (Alicante). At this point, it was found that the organization was composed entirely of citizens of Eastern Europe, with a homogeneous structure, making rapid and discreet trips to Spain to carry out its activity. To avoid leaving a trace of their presence, they did not register in hotel establishments and made sure that they did not leave seats in databases, which was an added difficulty during the development of the entire investigation.
They took care of all the details to go completely unnoticed
It is also determined that the network rented winter farms away from urban centers and camouflaged crops with others of a legal nature. Likewise, they took care of all the details to go completely unnoticed, even employing members of the network to stock the farm keepers and thus avoid being located outside the greenhouses.
After the pressure exerted in the province of Almeria, the organization moves its activity to the province of Alicante, where the Smoking Club is established as a center of operations.
The agents carried out a series of inspections in different farms and homes in the towns of San Juan, Elche, Dénia and Petrer, locating in the latter a new plantation with more than 4.000 marijuana plants.
Evidenced the existence of a perfectly organized organization in which each of its members performed previously assigned missions, both in the preparation of the activity and in its execution, the agents close the fence on the members of the network getting, despite the great security measures and "Against surveillance", locate them and stop them.
In part of California it is already legalized and they are growing as if they were pine forests. It was illegal and now not.