Suspected drug trafficking gang who set up Spanish marijuana farm arrested

Spanish authorities seized more than €5.5 million worth of criminal assets as part of the investigation after discovering that the suspects had built elaborate drug production infrastructure.

The crime group was based in the south of Spain and involved Albanian, Italian, Spanish, and Moroccan nationals.

They were led by Italian nationals who used forged identity documents to avoid detection by law officials.

The arrested drug traffickers and money launderers were caught following searches of six houses in Seville, Spain, where police discovered a large marijuana plantation and drug lab.

Two luxury watches were recovered and seized during the operation, as well as €16,545 in cash, 2,500kg of hashish, 45.6kg of marijuana, and criminal infrastructure including lorries, a boat, tools for marijuana cultivation and hashish production, and 34 mobile phones.

Forged travel and identification documents were also confiscated.

Investigations into this case began in October 2021, when a hashish shipment was found hidden in a lorry transporting pallets of onions. Law enforcement arrested the two drivers and seized 468kg of hashish.

This was followed by another seizure of 194kg of hashish and 30kg of marijuana in May 2022.

In the same month, law enforcement stopped a boat coming from Morocco used by the criminal organisation on the open sea and arrested its three occupants, as well as seizing 1,800kg of hashish and the vessel itself.

This interception highlighted that it had become “increasingly difficult” for the criminal network to import drugs via the sea, Europol said.

In retaliation, the organisation built their laboratory for hashish production and set up a large marijuana plantation in southern Spain.

This investigation involved more than 150 law enforcement officials and was led by the Spanish Civil Guard with support from the Italian Central Directorate for Anti-Drugs Services (Direzione Centrale Servizi Antidroga).

Europol provided operational expertise as well as analytical and operational support from the very beginning of the 16-month-long investigation.

A Europol specialist was also deployed on location in Spain during the main action day.