Spanish police announced on Thursday that they had seized six tonnes of cannabis following dismantling a giant plantation near Barcelona, a record seizure according to them.
The police operation resulted in the arrest of five people and the seizure of “just over six tons of cannabis, including 3.5 tons of wrapped buds”, Spanish police and the Civil Guard said in a joint statement.
According to them, it is ‘the largest quantity of cannabis ever seized in Spain’.
The investigation began in March 2021 when the police discovered a 32-hectare plot in Vilassar de Mar, regarding thirty kilometers from Barcelona, dedicated to the cultivation of industrial hemp.
Signs on site suggested it was a legal activity, but no permission had been given and the police soon realized they were in fact facing a gigantic field where cannabis plants had been growing since 2018. .
More than 100 cameras turned on day and night allowed to watch over the thousands of plants scattered in several sheds and greenhouses.
After being the gateway to hashish in Europe for decades, Spain has seen plantations swarm in its territory in recent years, attracting criminal organizations from all over the European continent.
/ATS