Alicante is 'an authentic cannabis jungle'

Alicante is 'an authentic cannabis jungle'
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By h.b. - Jan 2, 2012 - 1:14 PM
The Valencia region has seen increased marihuana plantations

9,000 plants in the largest plantation found so far in Alicante - Photo Guardia Civil

Spain is now one of the main areas of marihuana cultivation inside the European Union. The number of plantations being discovered by the police has soared, especially in the Valencia region.

The business is controlled by Dutch mafia groups which has organised plantations across Andalucía, Murcia, Cataluña, Aragón and above all in the Valencia region where Alicante has been described as ‘an authentic cannabis jungle’ by Civil Guard antidrug sources.

‘There are plantations in nearly all the municipalities of Alicante province and in many in Valencia, because of their orography and climate’, adding that homemade greenhouses have been set up in flats and villas, and more sophisticated operations had been established in warehouses. Some open air operations were hidden from prying eyes.

The large operations are controlled by the Dutch mafias and they have sent technicians to ‘teach’ the Spanish. More than 17,000 Dutch live in the Valencia region, 15,000 of them in the province of Alicante. Some recent discoveries include 47 plants in Alcoy, 33o in an Alicante flat, 600 in a villa in Elche, 735 in a house in Oliva, 104 in Torrent, 172 in Granja de Rocamora, and 676 in Valencia.

The plants don’t need earth, as they can be fed by a water system with water saturated in oxygen and nutrients. Then there needs to be ozone extractors, humidity control, a drying area, isolated walls and halogen lamps switched on 24 hours a day. One site found in San Vicente de Raspeig, saw 9,000 € being paid a month for light, as 1,800 plants were being cultivated.

The Ak-47 seed has proved particularly popular and productive and at a cost of 800 € for six, they offer good results in a few weeks, an intense odour, and a 15% strength of THC, the main psychoactive substance.

A gram is now priced at 6 €, and a single plant can give half a kilo. The Guardia Civil says that shops which sell marihuana seeds are misleading customs by telling them that you can grow two plants for private use. The Guardia says the cultivation is always a crime against public health, be it one plant of 500. They have recently started judicial action against a couple who had just four plants.

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