Guardia Civil officers arrested a 24-year-old man in a municipality of the Alfoz de Burgos, the district around the city of Burgos, and placed him at the disposal of the courts.[1][2][3] He is suspected of a crime against public health through drug trafficking in the form of cultivation, and of ill-treatment of a domestic animal for mutilating eight Spanish fighting-breed cocks without veterinary justification.[1][4][5] The Guardia Civil said the investigation began weeks earlier, when it found a fenced rural plot littered with rubbish, scrap and waste and showing signs of irregular care of the animals kept there.[1][2]

Officers from Seprona, the Guardia Civil’s nature-protection service, and from the judicial police of the Burgos command carried out a joint on-site inspection.[6][2][7][5] In the greenhouses on the property they found six Cannabis sativa plants in an advanced stage of growth and more than two metres tall, which weighed 22 kilograms green.[6][4][2][3] Burgosconecta reported that the plants grew directly in the ground, appeared to be tended, and were seized during the inspection.[8][4]

The eight cocks were found with their combs and wattles completely shaved off, and a later expert report by Seprona’s environmental forensics group confirmed the mutilation had been carried out without veterinary justification by unqualified people.[6][4][3][5] Officers also recorded administrative breaches: the owner had no legal register for a poultry holding and kept several dogs without the required vaccination or deworming.[6] They found birdlime, an adhesive used to trap birds, which is a prohibited means of catching game.[1][2]

The proceedings ended with officers drawing up formal complaints and sending the case file to the courts of the provincial capital, Burgos.[1][4][2][7]

The owner had no legal register for a poultry holding and kept dogs without the required vaccination or deworming.[4]

The fenced plot also held a vegetable garden, sheds and greenhouses which, according to sources at the Government Sub-delegation, appeared to conceal an undetermined number of marijuana plants.[2]

The Cannabis sativa plants found on the property weighed more than 22 kilograms green, the weight of the whole plant freshly cut including stems, roots, large leaves and moisture.[2]