Three people were arrested after a marijuana-trafficking organisation operating in the provinces of Alicante and Murcia was dismantled.[1] The Tax Agency’s Customs Surveillance smuggling group in Alicante and the National Police drugs and organised crime unit (UDYCO) in Alicante dismantled a network that grew, processed and distributed marijuana.[2] The investigation began with an operation in the municipality of Elche in March.[2]

During surveillance near a rural property, officers stopped a van as it was leaving.[2] In the van they found 126 kilograms of marijuana in rubbish bags and raffia sacks, and they arrested the driver, an Albanian man.[2] The network had assumed the identity of a Ukrainian citizen to sign the leases on the property and avoid police action.[3] The Tax Agency said the suspects were also accused of document fraud and usurpation of civil status.[2]

Investigators traced the network to a second indoor plantation, on a property in Cehegín, in Murcia.[2] A warrant from the civil and investigating section of Court of Instance No. 1 in Caravaca de la Cruz authorised a search of a building in Cehegín.[2] Officers found 145 flowering marijuana plants and indoor-growing equipment, including air-conditioning, humidifiers, carbon-filter extractors, fans, LED panels, automatic irrigation and centrifuges.[2] The installation was connected fraudulently to the electricity grid.[2] A Lithuanian man who was allegedly guarding and maintaining the crop was arrested in the search.[2] Days later, officers arrested another Lithuanian man, described as one of the alleged leaders, in Guardamar del Segura and brought him before the investigating court in Torrevieja.[2]