Spanish police said they seized the largest amount of cannabis ever found in a series of raids in various regions of the country.
Authorities indicated that they had seized 32 tons of the drug, with a market value of over £57 million. Police said nine men and 11 women, aged 20 to 59, were detained during the raids. The Civil Guard said that a “complex drug network” exports cannabis to various regions of Europe. The weight of the confiscated plants is equivalent to the weight of 5 adult African elephants.
Gang members were arrested in raids in the cities of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Valencia and Asturias last month, but Operation Gardens was not announced until Saturday. The police said the activity was controlled by several “companies”, each of which performed a different task, from buying seeds to planting and drying plants, and then packing them and transporting them abroad.
The Civil Guard said in a statement that police have seized “the largest amount of packaged cannabis found so far.” “The number of confiscated plants is 1.1 million plants.”
