- The drug would have reached in the black market a value of 234,000 euros
- The author of the facts is a neighbor of Bilbao who is also accused of a crime of defraudation of electric fluid for consuming more than 14,000 euros illegally connecting to the network to enhance the growth of the plants
The National Police has arrested a man accused of an alleged crime against public health and another of electric fluid fraud for growing marijuana inside a house.
The investigations began last March, when the investigators of the Judicial Police Brigade of Álava learned that in a house of the council of Corr, belonging to the municipality of Valdegovía, marijuana could be illegally cultivated.
After delving into the investigations, the agents found that devices had been installed in this house to illicitly divert the electricity supply and thus achieve constant ventilation through the use of extractor fans that evacuated and diffused any type of smell generated inside the property, thus avoiding arousing suspicions in the neighborhood.
After collecting sufficient evidence and with the necessary judicial authorization, the entry and registration was carried out in the property, with more than thirty agents participating in the operation, including the Special Security Operating Group (GOES).
On the second floor of the house were located five rooms in which he had distributed a plantation of 730 marijuana plants, weighing more than 53 kilos and which would have reached a value of 234,000 euros in the illegal market.
Marijuana plants were in different flowering states and were cultivated with sophisticated electronic and technical devices to accelerate their growth; such as heating lamps, fans, electric programmers, dehumidifiers, thermometer-hygrometers, transformers, luminaires, as well as fertilizers, carbon filters, growth stimulants and fungicides.
In this sense, the plants were seized and all these technical devices intervened, being at the disposal of the courts, since they are necessary means for criminal activity.
Likewise, when analyzing the operation of this entire system, the researchers discovered that the illegal connections to the general electricity network had generated economic damage to the electricity company in charge of the supply of 14,000 euros.
Finally, during the search, the author of these events was also arrested, who turned out to be a 20-year-old neighbour of Bilbao, who was personally responsible for the care and maintenance of the plantation, as well as for surveillance and subsequent illegal sale. The same one, was made available to the judiciary.