They set up a camp in the purest style of Colombian drug traffickers. They attached tarps to the trunks of a dense pine forest, covered them with vegetation, and placed everything needed to dry the plants underneath. They installed a pipe to collect water from a ditch in the Chíllar River in Nerja (Málaga, population 21,450). And they set up a campsite for cooking and sleeping. All this after deforesting two hectares in the heart of the Sierras de Tejeda, Alhama and Almijara Natural Park, where marijuana could be grown. So much so that when the Guardia Civil arrived, they found almost 500 kilos of dried buds and another ton already packed for transport. “The materials had to be transported by helicopter because they weigh a lot and it is a place with ravines that is more than a two-hour walk from any hiking trail,” say the surprised agents who took part in Operation Camp last fall .
Rural areas have become mafia favorites. The more insulation, the better. They just need a remote location, a river to get water from, a forest that is not difficult to cut down, and good orientation to get many hours of sun. This is a solid deal – it avoids agency costs – and safe because it limits exposure to security forces. There are also low prison sentences. “And it brings many advantages,” emphasizes the special prosecutor for anti-narcotics in Marbella, Carlos Tejada: a kilo costs 1,000 euros in Spain, and in Northern Europe it can cost up to 9,000 euros. For this reason, numerous criminal groups have abandoned the complex trafficking of cocaine and hashish and turned to cannabis. “The most worrying thing is that they are usually guarded by armed people,” says the latest report from the public prosecutor’s office in Andalusia. In 2020, for example, three guards were injured when they were shot on land where cannabis was grown in Cádiz.
There, in Malaga or Almería, operations against marijuana in rural areas are common due to the good climate. But in recent years they are everywhere. Even in areas where it snows in spring, such as the Pyrenees. “I always thought we wouldn't have any here, but to my surprise there are already plenty of plantations,” says Cèsar Jou, sub-inspector of Mossos d'Esquadra, head of the criminal investigation department of Alt Pirineu i Aran, where only in 2023 a dozen plantations were dismantled and eight tons of them were ready for distribution, i.e. 27 tons of plants. “Its presence has increased significantly since 2018,” points out Jou, “but it occurs in many other areas,” he warns. For example, the Guardia Civil confiscated 32,370 kilos of buds in Castile-La Mancha in November 2022. It is the last year in which data has been published in the annual drug statistics, reflecting the great growth of harvests of this plant in Spain. “Spain has become a country producing marijuana and cannabis derivatives,” stressed the Interior Ministry, advocating the launch in November 2021 of the National Action Plan against crime related to the production and trafficking of marijuana.
The number of kilos confiscated by security forces has quadrupled in the last five years, reaching 126,000 in 2022. The growth is led by Valencia – where the quantity multiplied elevenfold, going from less than 5,000 to almost 55,000 kilos of buds – and Catalonia, which rose from 5,300 to 36,700 in the same period. The plants involved reached almost three million in 2022, more than three times that of 2018. “The increase is exponential year after year,” emphasizes one of the representatives of the Roca de la Axarquía group, east of Malaga, where in 2023 there were twenty Civil Guard deployments in just as many small communities.
One of the most high-profile operations, Abulaga, was launched last summer when environmentalists warned that a fire pond was emptying at an alarming rate. The Guardia Civil confirmed the existence of a pump that stole water and brought it to the Sierra Bermeja, where an area of high ecological value – close to where the fire burned 15,000 hectares in 2021 and 2022 – for The cultivation had been cut down a thousand stories. There were three prisoners. At the same time, the Guardia Civil arrested another 14 people involved in the cultivation of 12 tons of marijuana in a forest in the Aragonese Pyrenees, where 12,000 plants were found during Operation Captum in the regions of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza (Huesca). . where a year earlier, Operation Periculum intervened 44,382 plants in nine remote, almost inaccessible locations. In both cases they had cut down trees and cleared the forest to create more growing space. That same fall of 2022, the Mossos d'Esquadra dismantled another large plantation in Forat de Bulí (Lleida), where traffickers had cut down 220 trees and left a hundred more without branches. The list of recent police operations in remote areas is endless: Tarragona, Girona, Seville, León, Ciudad Real…
Isolation, water and sun
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For security forces operating in the rural world, such as those who make up the 140 Roca groups in all autonomous communities except the Basque Country and Catalonia, marijuana-related investigations have now become almost routine. These teams were formed in 2011 to specifically monitor thefts on farms and livestock farms. However, the agents explain that they have evolved from searching for small crops for their own consumption to large areas with thousands of specimens promoted by international organizations. Mainly they are Albanians, Poles, Chinese, Dutch or Spanish. Sometimes no one notices that they are arriving or leaving. “They try to remain unnoticed, they don’t want to have problems with anyone,” explains an experienced state police officer.
The operations carried out by criminal organizations are subject to similar characteristics. Typically, a trusted person will explore an area until they find the right place. It must have three main requirements. First, the isolation of residential areas or routes, which is why they prefer regions affected by depopulation. The second is a watercourse promoted with pumps and generators given the high demand of thousands of plants, and the third is an orientation that allows a maximum number of hours of sunshine. They also choose forests that are not very dense to facilitate clearing, which they carry out with axes and chainsaws. They recycle the wood obtained to build their warehouses, tables, chairs or beds as well as the ponds in which they store water and mix it with growth and flowering fertilizers. They also sometimes build greenhouses out of opaque tarp that they can open and close to speed up harvest. Then they break up the soil, plant and care for it. After harvesting, they dry the buds in the same place and vacuum pack them. They then store them and gradually distribute them in vehicles towards Northern Europe.
“It's a huge effort, but they're becoming more and more specialized. And they learn: Before they have created a large plantation with 15,000 or 20,000 specimens. Now they prefer multiple plots with 2,000 or 3,000 plants. They know that some will fall, but they take care of the rest,” emphasizes sub-inspector Cèsar Jou, who led an operation at the end of last year that found 27,000 plants that would be worth 49 million euros on the market. As in other cases, personnel remained in the area to work on the harvest. Its activity pollutes the soil through the use of chemical fertilizers, which can affect flora and fauna, and damages the environment through deforestation or changing the course of rivers to produce irregular water extraction. In addition, a lot of waste is generated – iron, plastic bags, bottles, leftover food, butane bottles, tools and even solar panels – and there is a great risk of fire due to the use of generators, but also because the guards tend to smoke.
Police officers point out the difficulties in detecting these plants, as they are sometimes not even found by drones. Not only because of the remoteness, but also because guarding in the middle of the forest brings with it numerous problems. These include security measures such as “the reinforcement of fencing, motion sensors and night vision cameras or video surveillance systems,” says the report from the Andalusian public prosecutor’s office. There are also gangs setting up traps in the area. Be it a simple, hidden rope that rings a bell when you enter, or mechanisms that activate tubes loaded with cartridges. “We have an agent with a leg full of shotgun shells,” Jou points out. The presence of weapons is becoming increasingly common among personnel guarding and maintaining facilities, particularly due to fears of robbery by rival gangs. That's why he gives some advice: “If someone comes across one of these plantations, don't approach it or take photos.” Let them go and then let us know. It is very dangerous,” he concludes.
Maria greenhouses
The use of greenhouses for marijuana cultivation is also increasing, either in remote areas in natural areas, such as those installed in agricultural areas of Almería or Axarquía in Malaga. Even in depopulated areas, criminal organizations try to take advantage of isolated rural houses and farmhouses. You rent it and use every room – and every available corner, even the bathroom – to set up pots and grow up to five annual plants. They are also increasingly specialized crops that have their origins in illegal connections to power lines. From there, they install 600-watt LED bulbs, power multipliers, air extractors, fans, carbon filters to prevent odors, and drip irrigation systems. Hydroponic systems have also already been discovered that reuse water not for environmental reasons, but to minimize visits to the plantation and avoid risks.
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