By Vickie Scullard • 07 November 2022 • 11:54
Spanish police seize largest amount of marijuana ever worth $64 million. Credit: Guardia Civil.
The footage, captured by Guardia Civil officers, shows them discovering the haul after officers dismantled an organisation that had stored more than 32 tons of marijuana buds in Toledo, Ciudad Real, Valencia, and Asturias.
Through a complex business network, the organisation sent “vacuum-packed marijuana throughout the national territory”, as well as to Switzerland, Holland, Germany, and Belgium, among other European countries.
The Jardines operation concluded with the seizure of 32,370.2 kilograms of the drug – not only the largest seizure of this substance in Spain but also internationally.
Officers revealed that there were approximately 1.1m buds, which is believed to have an estimated street value of around €64 million.
Twenty people – nine men and eleven women between the ages of 20 and 59 – have been arrested as being part of an organisation, which had offices in Toledo, Ciudad Real, Valencia, and Asturias, and controlled the entire drug production and distribution process.
Police said the gang dried the marijuana plants, packaged them, and sent them to parts of Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium.
The investigation began with an inspection by the Civil Guard of several industrial hemp plantations in Villacañas (Toledo). The main people under investigation owned a company that is said to have acquired the seeds, while a second “transported and planted them”.
Another company was “in charge of the care, maintenance, collection, and drying of the specimens” before the first company “acquired the already dried plants with the buds and stored them in two warehouses located in the province of Valencia”.
From there, the detainees are alleged to have processed the drug, separating the buds and vacuum packaging them in different formats to send them both to places in Spanish territory and to European countries, mainly Switzerland, Holland, Germany, and Belgium.
The second inspection took place in the town of Almagro (Ciudad Real) during the month of October and saw agents from the Toledo UOPJ discover around 37,000 plants distributed in four greenhouses and in the process of drying.
The Civil Guard said they also found four tons of marijuana stings stored in several bags with the destination of all the merchandise being the two warehouses in Valencia.
In this last province, officers report finding 30,530 kilos of buds, 20 kilos of pollen – all vacuum packed – 21,600 plants in the process of drying, and 231,200 packs of marijuana buds.
Documentation has also been found that accredited the existence of several more plantations, and machinery for processing, elaboration, and packaging, highlighting above all two machines for the extraction of pollen.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Share this story
Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox!
By signing up, you will create a Euro Weekly News account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
A journalist of more than 12 years from Manchester, UK, Vickie now lives in Madrid and works as a news writer for the Euro Weekly News.
A worthy news paper. is it possible to get a date for the reopening of the Altea Municipal Swimming pool??
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Known as the PEOPLE’S PAPER, Euro Weekly News is the leading English language newspaper in Spain. And it’s FREE!
Covering the Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca, Almeria, Axarquia, Mallorca and beyond, EWN supports and inspires the individuals, neighbourhoods, and communities we serve, by delivering news with a social conscience. Whether it’s local news in Spain, UK news or international stories, we are proud to be the voice for the expat communities who now call Spain home.
With around half a million print readers a week and over 1.5 million web views per month, EWN has the biggest readership of any English language newspaper in Spain. The paper prints over 150 news stories a week with many hundreds more on the web – no one else even comes close.
Our publication has won numerous awards over the last 25 years including Best Free Newspaper of the Year (Premios AEEPP), Company of the Year (Costa del Sol Business Awards) and Collaboration with Foreigners honours (Mijas Town Hall). All of this comes at ZERO cost to our readers. All our print and online content always has been and always will be FREE OF CHARGE.
© 2022 EWN Media. No part of this website may be reproduced without written permission from the publishers. All rights reserved. Supported by SST.
Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox!
By signing up, you will create a Euro Weekly News account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
Download our media pack in either English or Spanish.