Police in Spain seize largest amount of marijuana on record
November 7, 2022
Spanish police have seized what they say is the country's largest ever haul of marijuana.
Police said they confiscated 32 tons of marijuana, worth a street value of at least €64 million ($63.74 million). Spain's Civil Guard added that the bust amounted to the largest amount of marijuana ever found in Spain or internationally.
What do we know about the incident?
Dubbed "Operation Gardens" by law enforcement, police conducted raids on a series of farms and production plants across Spain. Twenty people, nine men and 11 women, between the ages of 20 and 59 were arrested in total.
"The Civil Guard has seized the largest cache of packaged marijuana found so far," the Spanish Civil Guard said in a statement.
"It was equivalent to approximately 1.1 million plants."
Police said the gang dried the marijuana plants, packaged them and sent them to parts of Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Germany and Belgium.
Each year about 22 million cannabis users spend roughly €9 billion ($8.94 billion) on the substance, according to Interpol data.
jsi/ar (dpa, Reuters)