Spanish National Police and Customs Surveillance officers have dismantled two indoor cannabis plantations in Cartagena, seizing 200 kilograms of marijuana and weapons of war.
Officers arrested two people after raiding two residential properties in the Los Dolores neighbourhood of the southeastern Spanish city. Following the operation, a judge ordered the main suspect placed in provisional prison.
The two detainees are suspected of drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons and electricity fraud. The raids concluded a joint investigation conducted over recent months through ongoing cooperation between the National Police (Policía Nacional) in the Region of Murcia and the Customs Surveillance Service (Vigilancia Aduanera) of Spain's Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria).
Investigators detected two properties in Los Dolores that were being used for intensive marijuana cultivation. Following the required procedures, officers carried out entries and searches at both homes, where they found indoor growing installations equipped with all the components needed to cultivate and process the narcotic substances. In total, officers seized more than 500 fresh marijuana plants with flowering tops weighing 200 kilograms.
According to police, one of the dismantled homes had been fitted with heavy security measures to hinder law enforcement entry, leaving the building practically fortified like a bunker. Those running the plantation had installed high-security doors to protect the crop inside.
Assault rifle and grenade seized
Alongside the drugs, investigators uncovered a cache of weapons during the searches. Officers seized a Czechoslovakian-made assault rifle along with its magazines and ammunition, as well as a grenade.
Specialist bomb disposal officers from the National Police's explosive ordnance disposal unit, known as TEDAX (Técnicos Especialistas en Desactivación de Artefactos Explosivos), were called to the property to safely remove the grenade. During the search, officers also confiscated a pellet shotgun fitted with a telescopic sight, a pair of binoculars, an electric stun device and a swordstick, which is a walking cane concealing a hidden blade.
Under Spanish weapons regulations, military firearms, explosives, electric stun weapons and concealed blades such as swordsticks are prohibited for civilian use. TEDAX teams are specialist units within the National Police deployed across Spain whenever live ordnance or suspected explosives are found.
Illegal power hookups and fire risk
Officers inspecting the two properties verified that both plantations had illegal hookups to the electrical grid. The connections were wired directly into the public street lighting network to supply power to the numerous cultivation devices without the operators paying the high cost of the electricity consumed.
Police noted that such fraudulent connections pose a serious safety hazard because they can cause electrical overloads, fires and power cuts. Those faults put both the residents of the affected houses and neighbours in adjoining buildings in danger.
Policing drug networks in Murcia
Cartagena is a major port city on the Mediterranean coast in the southeastern Spanish region of Murcia, and Los Dolores is a residential district in the north of the municipality. Within Spain's law enforcement system, the National Police is responsible for urban policing and serious criminal investigations, while the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance Service investigates smuggling, contraband and organised drug trafficking operations.
Following the searches, the two detainees were brought before the competent judicial authority, which ordered provisional prison for the principal suspect in the investigation.
