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Date Published: 20/04/2021
ARCHIVED - Squatter arrested for growing 998 marihuana plants in illegally occupied property in Novelda, Alicante
Police officers from the province of Alicante also discovered that the man had been stealing electricity from a nearby transformer
Imagine being the owner of a property and arriving to find a house and swimming pool full of marijuana plants being cultivated through an illegal electrical connection!
The Guardia Civil in Alicante have arrested a man in the municipality of Novelda after finding nearly 1,000 marihuana plants and numerous cultivation tools in a rural home, which was being occupied illegally.
The investigation, named “Bluepool”, was launched at the end of February when the Guardia Civil were made aware that illegal activity could be taking place in a property in the Novelda area.
Further investigation revealed that the rural house was owned by the bank and that the 30-year-old man was squatting there illegally while he mass-produced, and later sold, marihuana.
One month after “Bluepool” started, police officers raided the property and found that the interior was completely adapted for the production and packaging of the drug, while the man was only using about 15 metres of space in which to live.
In addition, officers found another plantation in the garage and another in the back garden; he had also been preparing the swimming pool for use as an indoor plantation!.
Furthermore, the police were able to determine that the property was using stolen electricity through illegal hookups, which caused a nearby electrical transformer to break, leaving several neighbours without electricity. The damage to the transformer cost more than 5,000 euros of public funds to repair.
The criminal has now been arrested and charged with drug trafficking, drug cultivation and manufacture, damages, electricity fraud and illegal occupation of property.
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