Officers of the Tax Agency’s Customs Surveillance service and the National Police seized about 7,500 cannabis plants from three industrial units in Villalbilla, Pinto and Fuenlabrada on 7 February 2017.[1] The premises were fully equipped for cultivation, with fertilisers, sacks of soil, compost, lighting and heating systems, plant pots, extraction and ventilation pipes, fans and vacuum-sealed bags, and electricity technicians assisting the searches established that all three units were stealing power from the grid.[1] In total 7,481 plants were seized and two more members of the organisation were arrested on suspicion of membership of a criminal organisation, offences against public health and electricity fraud.[1]
The raids were the second phase of an investigation whose first phase, at the start of the year, used more than 100 officers to dismantle an organisation of Chinese and Spanish nationals involved in cannabis cultivation, with twelve arrests and seizures of 17,000 plants, 78,000 euros in cash, jewellery and luxury watches.[1] Customs officers of the Madrid office worked alongside National Police judicial and forensic units, the Getafe judicial police brigade, a technical interventions group, dog handlers and the Intelligence Centre against Organised Crime, and the agency says the investigation is now concluded.[1]
