Alex Trelinski
A gang who hooked up an illegal water supply from a Murcia region well to irrigate farms has been busted by the Guardia Civil.
Three people have been arrested and 17 others, all involved with agriculture, are being investigated after the illegal tapping of the Rambla del Talyon well in the Aguilas and Lorca area.
Besides obtaining and distributing the clandestine water supply, charges of damaging natural resources and the environment are set to be laid down
A Guardia investigation started in late 2020 when suspicions were aroused over how the well was used.
The gang extracted water from the well by using a generator to pump it through an underground pipe that stretched for 12 kilometres.
Guardia officers literally followed the pipe’s trail and the various conduits from it to uncover the extent of the criminal operation.
They discovered that water was being supplied to 24 agricultural plots covering 125 hectares.
The illegal network had generators at several points to feed individual pipes to participating farms who grew irrigated crops without any permission.
Besides theft, the illegal extraction increased the risk of environmental damage to the Rambla del Talyon surroundings, in addition to unauthorised farms using chemical fertilisers.
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