The Civil Guard dismantled an international marijuana trafficking organisation under Operation Lumbre, arresting 28 people and investigating two more for membership of a criminal organisation, drug trafficking and electricity fraud.[1] Officers carried out 16 searches in Almería, Málaga, Toledo and Zaragoza, seizing large amounts of cash and several imitation firearms.[1]
The inquiry began in mid-2023 after earlier drug operations pointed to members with prior convictions in other European countries.[1] The network bought marijuana from growers in Almería, then used a Toledo contact to source cheaper supplies there, vacuum-packing the buds at a farm south of Madrid and moving them abroad in trucks fitted with double bottoms.[1]
In a first phase, officers stopped trucks already en route to other European countries and searched seven premises across Almería, Málaga and Toledo plus a lorry travelling through Zaragoza, finding more than 100 kg of vacuum-packed buds soaked in bleach hidden in a double bottom and arresting 11 people.[1] A second phase brought 17 more arrests, with the two investigated people accused of running the organisation’s own plantations, buying third-party crops and arranging transport through front men, while nine searches in Almería and Toledo uncovered nine indoor grows with nearly 1,500 plants.[1]
