Spain's Civil Guard Dismantles Europe's Most Sophisticated Marijuana Greenhouse, in Murcia

This week the Civil Guard located and dismantled the most sophisticated marijuana greenhouse discovered to date in Europe, in Molina de Segura (Murcia). On the site they discovered some 6000 cannabis sativa plants, whose value has been estimated at around one million euros. They were cultivated by experts in the agrarian and technological spheres.

The spacious greenhouse had been hermetically sealed, isolated, ventilated and equipped with every tool necessary in these cases to create a place conducive to the crops' cultivation. It included sophisticated refrigeration and lighting systems, with electrical transformers and irrigation favouring the product's fast and effective growth, featuring hydroponic growing, based on the use of mineral solutions instead of soil.

According to the information available at this time, the operation's main backers were a number of wealthy businesspeople who had set up the macrogreenhouse in a large industrial warehouse in the Murcian town.

Apparently the grass was discovered after law enforcement authorities noticed major anomalies in local electricity usage. Eight people were arrested as part of the operation, accused of intensive marijuana growing and exportation.

Those arrested were seven Dutch nationals, ranging in age from 27 to 43, and a 58-year-old Icelander, who had made a major economic investment. They normally transported the product obtained by highway to Holland, with monthly production having been estimated at some 10 tonnes of buds.