The Civil Guard of Alicante has arrested a couple who were intensively growing marijuana in a chalet in Calpe, where the alleged perpetrators lived with their two minor children. The couple have numerous records for other drug trafficking crimes committed in the Region of Murcia.
Last December 2020, components of the Calpe Civil Guard Research Area detected the possible existence of a marijuana plantation indoor in a house in a residential area of the town. The agents began investigations to verify the facts.
Soon, the clues turned to two possible perpetrators, a couple of 29 and 38 years, who have a long criminal history for almost a decade. They come from a well-known family clan settled in the Region of Murcia.
During the development of the Operation Murcia2020, as it was baptized by the investigators, and which has been carried out during the last two months, the agents suspected that the alleged perpetrators had an important infrastructure deployed, which probably housed a large plantation.
They found out that they had been residing in the chalet, together with a newborn son and another 8 years old, since last October 2020, on a rental basis. In addition to an initial entry of 12.000 euros, they paid the owners 2.000 euros per month. It was a spacious three-story house, located in a central urbanization of the town, with garden areas and a private pool.
All the capital available to the couple came from drug trafficking. They acted with total impunity, without trying to hide under another work activity that served as a cover.
In the search carried out on February 5, the Civil Guard corroborated their suspicions: they had converted more than 250 square meters of the house into intensive production greenhouses. Located in the basement, they had enabled a room of about 200 square meters in which 850 plants were involved; and on the first floor, another smaller room in which another 150 plants took part. In total, the agents have seized 1.000 marijuana plants in various stages of maturation, which made it easier for the alleged perpetrators to collect them periodically, and therefore, the permanent entry of profits with the fraudulent activity.
They had all the necessary infrastructure to maintain an indoor marijuana cultivation at full capacity. The Civil Guard located in the two rooms numerous air conditioners and fans that allowed the necessary aeration for the optimal growth of the crop. They had a sophisticated installation for filtering the air vents, thus avoiding being detected by the smell. Large water tanks supplied the plantation through a drip irrigation system. The authors used a large amount of fertilizers, fertilizers and maturation accelerators, to shorten the processes of cultivation and collection of the buds.
Such was the fraud of electricity, that they had generated a collapse in the electricity supply of the rest of the residents of the urbanization, with the illegal hook-up from which they supplied air and light to the plantation.
In addition to the 1.000 marijuana plants, 200 grams of buds, numerous devices for the plantation infrastructure, hundreds of flowerpots and 1.000 euros in cash, from the illicit activity, have been seized.
A 38-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman of Spanish nationality have been arrested as alleged perpetrators. They are charged with a crime against public health for the cultivation or manufacture of drugs and another for fraud of electricity.
After being made available to the Dénia Investigating Court, they have been released with charges, with the obligation to appear weekly at the judicial headquarters.
