Investigators arrested 13 people and seized 3,000 marijuana plants in various stages of flowering and growth. The team, operating from the regions of Selva and Girones, provided regular road transport to Lyon and Montpellier.
We learn about it only after almost a month after the fact. Last February, Mossos d’Esquadra and Spanish customs officers dismantled a new network of drug dealers in Catalonia. Among the 13 suspects arrested, five men and one woman, aged between 22 and 41, were eventually brought to trial and placed under judicial supervision pending trial.
The investigation began with revelations from another case, a June 2022 investigation that uncovered 24 clandestine marijuana plantations. It was one of the traffickers arrested at the time who led investigators to the trail of this family clan, which operated mainly from the regions of La Selva and Girones, just across the border between France and Spain.
The group regularly transported marijuana by road to Lyon and Montpellier, as well as to Central European countries. The criminal organization also distributed drugs to local traffickers in Catalonia.
The convoys were very organized. The traffickers used two vehicles, one of which opened the road and alerted the second, carrying drugs, of possible police checks or other unforeseen events. The perpetrators also used a whole fleet of mobile phones, which they changed regularly to avoid detection by the police.
The team, operating from the regions of Selva and Girones, provided regular road transport to Lyon and Montpellier.
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© Mossos d’Escuadra
On 15 February, having collected sufficient evidence of the group’s activities, the security forces took action in 9 houses or clandestine plantations located in the municipalities of Macanet de la Selva, Sils, Sant Martí de Llemena and Olot.
During the searches, the police seized more than eleven kilograms of marijuana buds with an illegal market value of €72,400, 925 grams of hashish worth €31,000 and 25 grams of cocaine worth €1,500. Also seized were about 30,000 euros in cash and about 3,000 marijuana plants in various stages of flowering and growth.
Electricity distribution company technicians also valued the electric shock fraud on the inland plantations at around €235,000.