Alex Trelinski
EIGHT members of a major Costa Blanca marijuana gang that exported drugs to the UK and the Netherlands have been arrested by the Guardia Civil.
Detainees included British, Cuban, Dutch, Romanian, and Spanish nationals, two of whom have been imprisoned.
The rest of the crew have had their passports removed.
The gang’s main base was a warehouse and marijuana farm occupying over 20,000 metres of a deserted equestrian centre in Polop.
The Guardia Civil seized 37 kilos of marijuana buds along with drug paraphernalia, five vehicles and €15,000 in cash.
The cars had concealed compartments for drug transportation.
Officers also discovered empty butano cannisters in the warehouse that stored the marijuana.
The criminals were caught out after residents on a San Vicente del Raspeig urbanisation complained about the stench of marijuana wafting out of a rented luxury villa.
A Guardia raid dismantled an indoor marijuana farm and uncovered a six-metre long tunnel with cables fed through it to facilitate an illegal hook-up to the electricity supply.
The San Vicente villa was just part of a wider criminal operation which led officers to raid the Polop warehouse as well as a luxury home in Orcheta which housed two sophisticated drug laboratories.
The Guardia Civil said the gang had been operating since at least 2019 and all of them have extensive criminal records.
READ MORE:
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