Dangerous drug gang smashed
Marijuana sent to the UK and other countries hidden amongst fruit and produce
A GANG based in Alicante province that was specialised in growing and exporting new strains of marijuana has been rounded up by the Guardia Civil.
A spokesman for the force explained that in October 2019 they started investigating several Polish nationals who were acquiring large quantities of the drug.
The Polish police informed that these people had numerous criminal records there for similar offences, and most had served time in prison.
Arrest warrants had been issued for some of them, while others had served in the Polish army and others were banned from entering football stadiums in that country.
Several suspects were in Picassent and Calpe using upmarket vehicles and equipment to attack other criminal gangs and steal their drugs. The ringleader was identified and found to be driving around in a top-ofthe-range vehicle that had been stolen in Manchester the month before.
Officers also discovered that the gang was renting luxury villas to grow indoor cannabis plantations.
For the next phase of the operation, searches were carried out in Alicante and Muchamiel, and a warehouse in Elche which contained a complete laboratory for studying, analysing and improving various strains of marijuana.
There were powerful magnifiers, numerous devices for measuring the strains’ THC levels and 140 cannabis plants, as well as a kilo of marijuana buds and small amounts of hashish and cocaine. The gang’s logistical centre held enough equipment to set up another 20 indoor plantations (electrical transformers, halogen lamps, filters, ventilation systems, water pumps, temperature control, etc), valued at approximately €100,000.
The spokesman noted that the warehouse was heavily guarded by gang members with pistols, ammunition and silencers.
The ringleader lived in a house in Muchamiel, which also had a laboratory for processing hashish oil extracted from the marijuana, which was sent around the world by parcel services to customers who had ordered it from the gang’s website.
Officers found 100 pipettes of hashish oil, 1kg of pollen hashish and 1kg of marijuana buds, as well as some of the latest IT equipment.
One day later, another five properties were searched in Aguas de Busot, Arenales del Sol, two in Gran Alacant (Santa Pola) and one in Coveta Fumá (El Campello).
Another three cannabis plantations were dismantled, totalling 500 plants, and officers seized 40 ecstasy tablets, 100 grams of marijuana and €15,000 in cash.
At one of the homes in Gran Alacant a suspect who had a European arrest warrant to extradite him back to Poland was using identification in his brother’s name.
For the third phase of the operation three more homes were searched – a luxury farmhouse in Pilar de la Horadada, and two mansions in San Vicente del Raspeig.
These last two contained two enormous hydroponic indoor plantations with more than 2,000 adult cannabis plants and the latest technology, which enabled them to accelerate growth using mineral solutions instead of soil so they could get up to four harvests per year and make profits in the millions.
They created their own strains of marijuana by experimenting with hybrids made from cuttings of other strains in order to modify certain effects or characteristics.
The gang was a complex network divided into cells set up around the province, and used goods vehicles to distribute the marijuana they had grown by road.
It would be sent hidden amongst fruit, drinks or other foods to the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Poland.
For the robberies of rival gangs, they used highly specialised military training and equipment to monitor and follow their targets, attacking homes where drugs were stored with great violence using stolen vehicles, firearms and wearing masks of fictional characters.
The goods seized in the searches included a total of 11 vehicles and a motorcycle (five of them stolen in the UK in October and November 2019), three 7.63mm calibre pistols, surveillance equipment, electric stun weapons, 3,000 cannabis plants from seven plantations, equipment for plantations over €300,000, €18,000 in cash, and fake identification papers and number plates.