Spain seizes 52 tonnes of marijuana from hemp-front farms in Catalonia
Spanish police announced on 18 November 2022 that raids from June to October had dismantled eight farms in Catalonia that hid marijuana production behind supposedly legal hemp plantations, seizing 52 tonnes in total. Twenty people were detained on suspected electricity fraud and offences against public health.
🇪🇸 Barcelona and Tarragona provinces, Catalonia · Spain
Spanish police announced on Friday 18 November 2022 that they had seized more than 50 tonnes of marijuana, the largest amount ever confiscated in the country.[1][2]Officers of the Policía Nacional, the Guardia Civil and Catalonia’s Mossos d’Esquadra dismantled eight farms in Catalonia between June and October.[3][1]
The farms were disguised as supposedly legal hemp plantations, registered as owned by a trading company and sited among warehouses with legal industrial activity.[1][2]A Policía Nacional post said seven of the eight plantations were in Barcelona province and one in Tarragona province.[3]
Plants, buds and detentions
In total, agents seized 52 tonnes of marijuana: more than 187,000 plants plus 19 tonnes of buds.[1][2]Twenty people were detained on suspected electricity fraud and offences against public health.[1][2]
Spain’s Tax Agency had said in June, for a different operation, that cannabis was worth between 2,300 and 2,500 euros per kilogram; at that rate the 50 tonnes could be worth about 125 million euros.[2]
The announcement came less than two weeks after police reported seizing 32 tonnes of marijuana buds in Operation Gardens, which had set the previous record.[1][2]That is a separate bust from this Catalonia operation.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The report uses 18 November 2022, the announcement date; the raids themselves took place between June and October.
Police-handout photos of the raids were published with these reports and in a Policía Nacional post, but no direct photo URL that could be confirmed to show this event was recovered.
Guardia Civil officers in Segovia dismantled a clandestine marijuana plantation hidden in a greenhouse near El Espinar after neighbours reported a strong smell of cannabis. Two local residents were placed under investigation for alleged drug-trafficking cultivation, and officers seized 8.05 kg of plant material.
The Guardia Civil investigated a man in Aguilar de la Frontera, Córdoba, after a neighbour reported being threatened with a short firearm; he handed over an air pistol. Officers then found eight cannabis plants, about 1.60 metres tall, grown inside his home, with buds weighing 920 grams, and put the file before a court.
Guardia Civil officers intercepted a parcel holding 15.9 kilos of hashish resin at a transport company near Asturias airport, then arrested the 37-year-old Seville man who flew in to collect it in a simulated delivery. A judge sent him to prison on 6 November 2026.
Mossos d'Esquadra found a fully equipped forest camp in Figuerola del Camp holding more than 1,000 kilos of marijuana buds ready for sale. No arrests were reported and the investigation to identify those behind the site remains open.
