POLICE have swooped on an Albanian drug trafficking gang- making six simultaneous arrests across the Costa Blanca.
The crew grew marijuana to sell across Europe.
Six people- including the gang leader- have been detained with over 1,400 plants seized from rented homes and warehouses in Elche, Petrer, Torrellano, Crevillente and San Miguel de Salinas.
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The group’s boss used three fake identities to lease properties in the region.
Five locations were used as indoor marijuana farms, namely three warehouses and two villas.
The Policia Nacional started tracking movements of suspected gang members to establish they were involved in a drug trafficking racket.
‘Farm’ locations were confirmed to be using excess electricity- a normal sign of drug cultivation.
A large number of police officers were deployed for the simultaneous raids.
Five men and a woman, aged between 19 and 51 years, have been charged with drug trafficking, electricity fraud, and belonging to a criminal gang.
The plantations yielded 1,467 marijuana plants, six boxes of cuttings and 115 grams of buds plus €3,710 in cash.
The police said the farms were set up professionally with rooms adapted for maximum plant growth including LED lighting systems, industrial ventilation and air conditioners- all illegally connected to electricity supplies.
Air was expelled to the outside through industrial chimneys to prevent the smell of cannabis from being detected and the walls were completely sealed.
‘Caretakers’ lived inside the warehouses in unhealthy conditions, with the sole aim of maintaining the crop and preventing theft by rival drug gangs.
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