The Guardia Civil has dismantled a criminal organization and arrested nine people who allegedly sold marijuana camouflaged in candy wrappers in sports nutrition establishments, growshops, tobacco outlets and service stations in Ibiza, Formentera and Mallorca and other places in Spain.
The operation, coordinated by the Prosecutor’s Office of Almeria and the Berja Court of First Instance (Almería), has resulted in nine detainees and 147 investigated after carrying out four searches in Granada and Valencia and up to 244 inspections in establishments in 31 Spanish provinces. It is the first operation of this type carried out in Spain, according to the sources.
They explain that the scheme advertised its products as “organic hemp cultivationthe company offered wrappers and jars with names and colors that simulated those of candy ranging from one gram to 20 grams, with prices ranging from 6.50 to 30 euros. Vanilla, ice cream and chewing gum are some of the “extra” flavors of marijuana with an “extra” flavorhigh level of toxicity” sold by the criminal organization, according to Guardia Civil sources.
Each type of marijuana offered an “extra flavor” and contained an high THC content which increases its toxicity with respect to that usually found on sale illegally, according to the sources of the armed institute. The products were found next to the tobacco and the chocolatines in establishments to which marijuana was supplied on a “camouflaged basis of legality”.
A public reception area in Granada
They also highlight the intervention carried out in a company in Granada, which, according to other sources close to the case, is about Relash Lab Corporation 420 SLbased in a warehouse in the industrial park ‘La Paloma’ in Padul (Granada). According to these sources, the warehouse had a reception area for the public on the first floor where it was possible to test up to about twenty flavors of marijuana.
In addition, on the second floor, the detainees had a laboratory where chemists and other professionals worked so that the cleaning of the buds was “perfect”, with drums to provide the different flavors and a treatment process to follow the production, date and generate delivery notes. In addition, they had a planting area and another for administration in order to be able to to take orders through the internet which were sent by courier or to serve large customers of the alleged network.
In the operation, the following were seized two tons of marijuana budsmore than 100 marijuana plants, 12 kilos of hashish stash, more than five kilos of hashish resin, two vehicles, about 20,000 euros in cash and another 51,000 euros immobilized in a bank account and various computer equipment, according to the armed forces in a press release.
The beginning of the operation
The operation was initiated as a result of several investigations carried out by the Civil Guard in Almeria after learning that in different establishments in the province were being marketed psychotropic products derived from cannabis with legal appearance.
The actions have been carried out, in addition to Ibiza, Formentera and Mallorca, in the eight Andalusian provinces, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha (Albacete, Ciudad Real and Cuenca), Castilla y León (León), Cataluña (Barcelona and Gerona), Navarra, Comunidad Valenciana (Alicante and Valencia), Galicia (La Coruña and Pontevedra), La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, País Vasco (Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya), and Aragón (Huesca and Zaragoza).
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