Policía Nacional leads the international fight against the cultivation and international trafficking of marijuana in an operation in Europe called Operación Verde, which was launched in February 2019 with support of INTERPOL and EUROPOL.
In total 3,695 people have been arrested and more than 800 cannabis plantations have been dismantled in different operations carried out throughout Spain from August 2019 to October 2020. These plantations were installed in all types of homes, garages, hideouts, industrial warehouses and even public establishments.
The cultivation of marijuana brings a variety of related crimes, such as trafficking of other drugs like cocaine and heroin, possession of illegal weapons, money laundering, theft of electricity, belonging to criminal organizations and “vuelcos” (robbing drugs from other drug traffickers).
Policía Nacional has seized 496,047 plants and 25,642 kilos of marijuana, 23,849 kilos of hashish, 3,140 kilos of cocaine, 85 kilos of heroin, 458 firearms and more than 7,600,000 euros.
The agents have confirmed the improvement and professionalization of the "indoor" cultivation of marijuana. The police has improve their techniques to achieve detection of plantations.
The "indoor" plantations require electricity for the lighting, which commonly is stolen through illegal connections. The economical damage of the theft of electricity is estimated to 6,000,000 euros per quarter.
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