Alex Trelinski
POLICE have dismantled the first-known illegal opium farm in Spain and arrested two men.
It was being operated by two brothers in the Cartagena area of the Murcia region.
The Los Caballeros farm covers around 3,000 m2 and the Policia Nacional say they found the clandestine operation in its early stages.
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507 opium plants were seized with authorities believing that if the land had been fully cultivated, the crop could have reached 120,000 plants.
The La Verdad newspaper reported that the discovery surprised the police in the country’s first investigation in mass illegal opium growing.
Their findings were reported to the Department of Health which does not have a protocol in regard to opium.
Investigators believe the plantation was not solely aimed at making heroin but also to be used in synthetic drugs and the mass production of poppy seeds.
A single licensed company is in charge of legal opium crops in Spain.
It runs more than 6,000 hectares of opium poppy farms in regions such as Castilla La Mancha, Castilla y Leon, La Rioja, and the Basque Country.
