The Guardia Civil searched a British-run restaurant in Moraira on 19 November 2020 after a tip-off that it fronted a large marijuana operation downstairs, along with three other residences in Teulada-Moraira, in an operation dubbed Mosra.[1] Each of the four sites held a professional indoor plantation: in total agents found 1,600 marijuana plants and 5 kg of dried marijuana, which the agency valued at €200,000 and said was destined for the United Kingdom and other parts of Alicante.[1] They also seized €41,000 in cash, two shotguns and six vehicles.[1]
The drugs were dried and packaged in another house owned by the group’s leader before being moved on by van.[1] The electricity supply had been illegally bypassed for large-scale cultivation, including a three-metre tunnel beneath the restaurant that ran under the road; the loss to the power company was put at €60,000.[1] The leader reportedly fled police through a window; agents found €11,000 in cash and two shotguns at his home, plus a further €26,000 in banknotes.[1]
Nine people were arrested: five British citizens aged 23 to 49, two Argentinians, one Colombian and one Moroccan national.[1] They were charged with drug trafficking, membership of a criminal organisation, money laundering, electricity fraud and illegal possession of firearms, and appeared before a judge in Denia: three were remanded in prison and the rest released on bail awaiting trial.[1]
