Apartments that used up like hospitals: Endesa detects two electricity frauds for marijuana every day

BarcelonaIn order for marijuana to grow indoors, lights, heaters, fans and other devices that need electricity to work are needed. And they need a lot of it. A marijuana greenhouse can consume the same amount of electricity as 80 large apartments, each measuring around 100 m2. In Catalonia, plantations in homes that used the same amount of electricity as an entire hospital have been dismantled. In total, according to the data published by Endesa on Tuesday, last year the cannabis plantations detected in the country defrauded an amount of electricity equivalent to the consumption of Canovelles, a town of 17,000 inhabitants. That's 162 gigabytes per hour, 26% of the electricity defrauded in Catalonia.

In absolute figures, however, marijuana plantations are a small part of all the electricity fraud committed in the country: 3.16% of all the open files. But that 3% of frauds have consumed 26% of the defrauded electricity. During 2024, Endesa technicians detected two marijuana plantations tapping into the electricity every day: up to 722 cases in one year, nine more than in 2023.

The total fraud figures are also worrying, reaching 41.58% in one year. They represent the annual consumption of a large city, such as Sant Feliu de Llobregat or Lloret de Mar, which have more than 40,000 inhabitants. It should be noted that Endesa does not operate in the whole of Catalonia, although it does operate in most regions. Territories such as Alt Urgell, Solsonès and Pla de l'Estany are not part of the company. In others, such as Ripollès, Garrotxa, Vallès Oriental and Osona, the supply is shared with other companies.

In the rest of the State, the territories supplied by Endesa are Andalusia, Aragon, the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, in addition to the province of Badajoz. In this group of territories, the cases of fraud during 2024 amounted to 71,000, an increase of 33% compared to the previous year. The energy defrauded is equivalent to the consumption of 250,000 homes. The company points out that most of the defrauded energy is concentrated in industries, companies and marijuana plantations.

Hooded technicians

Endesa warns that the effects of marijuana plantations go far beyond fraud in the company or in the administration. They warn, for example, that they represent significant risks to the health of residents, since they can cause fires and electrocutions. Last year, 24 fires were recorded in the company's distribution centres throughout the State due to line saturation, caused by these fraud situations. However, the company also warns of the consequences for neighbourhood coexistence due to the existence of criminal groups that control the plantations. In fact, the company's workers must go to work hooded and accompanied by security forces to avoid being identified and suffering attacks when they act in cases of fraud. After these actions, the positive consequences are immediate: electricity consumption plummets and incidents are reduced by 90%. That is why the company reminds us of the importance of neighbours' reports to detect these frauds.

It is not news - the Mossos d'Esquadra have been warning for some time - that Catalonia has become a very important production point for marijuana to end up exporting it to European countries, where it is more expensive. Every year, on average, the Mossos make about 2,000 arrests for marijuana trafficking, and in 2023 they seized more than six tons of cannabis. Endesa sources place most of the frauds around the AP-7 highway, since traffickers look for well-connected places to get the drugs out by road. One of the incentives for all this, which the Mossos and Endesa often put on the table, is the legal framework, which in Spain is more lax than in the European environment: in countries such as France, Germany and Italy, a distinction is made between serious and minor cases and electrical fraud even carries prison sentences, while in the State, energy theft only carries an energy penalty.

Artificial intelligence to detect fraud

Just as marijuana plantations, especially indoor ones, are becoming more sophisticated every day, with more security measures and cutting-edge technology, Endesa is also trying to improve in this particular scientific war with traffickers. For example, the company explains that it is applying artificial intelligence to detect fraud patterns in the electricity grid. This, according to Endesa, has allowed it to double the success rate of inspections.