Spain’s Civil Guard said on Saturday 5 November 2022 that it had seized 32,370.2 kg of packaged marijuana buds, the largest such seizure in Spain and internationally.[1][2] The haul, equivalent to about 1.1 million whole plants, came from raids on farms and production plants across Toledo, Ciudad Real, Valencia and Asturias in an operation called Gardens (Jardines).[1][2]
Twenty people aged 20 to 59, nine men and eleven women, were arrested as members of an organisation with offices in those four provinces that controlled the whole production and distribution process.[1][2] Through a network of companies the group acquired seeds, planted and tended the crop, then dried it and vacuum-packed the buds in two warehouses in Valencia for shipment across Spain and to Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.[1][2] The investigation began with an inspection of industrial-hemp plantations in Villacañas, Toledo.[1]
In Ciudad Real police found about 37,000 plants in four greenhouses plus four tonnes of stored marijuana, arresting three people on site.[1] In Valencia they seized 30,530 kg of buds, 20 kg of pollen, 21,600 drying plants and 231,200 packs of buds with processing machinery, arresting 15 people.[1] A final inspection in Asturias seized 4,000 psychoactive plants and led to two arrests.[1]
