Marijuana clans are looking for undocumented front men to rent warehouses.

BarcelonaUntil now, the marijuana clans in Catalonia had opted for the outdoor plantations, taking advantage of the extensive and lush forests that exist. However, in recent years this dynamic has been changing, especially because the country has become one of the main producers of this drug. These groups, mostly from Eastern European countries, began exporting inland plantations, which are very present in territories like the Netherlands. They have been locating them in empty warehouses or abandoned houses, and the technology they use, from lighting to ventilation, has become more sophisticated. And now, modernization is also coming in the way they occupy these warehouses and houses.

In fact, it was common for the clans to directly occupy warehouses or houses, but a recent operation that the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) made public this Friday shows that the gangs have taken a step forward: they are now looking for front men without criminal records (so they don't attract the attention of the police) to rent these spaces, where they make them visible. In one of the cases uncovered by the police, the company was a renewable energy company. The front man and a real estate agent who was looking for spaces for them to continue growing have been arrested, according to ARA.

On March 11, the Mossos d'Esquadra dismantled a criminal network producing marijuana in the Barcelona metropolitan area. The head of the Territorial Investigation Unit of the Southern Metropolitan Police Region, Sub-Inspector Òscar Duran, explained this Friday that they arrested 12 men and one woman, aged between 20 and 52, in seven raids in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Vallirana, Hospitalet de Llobregat, and Santa Feliu de Llobre. More than 5,000 cannabis plants and 18 kilograms of marijuana were seized at the various locations.

Various weapons and ammunition

It's no longer news that marijuana clans are armed, and this one, made up of people from Eastern European countries, was: four firearms and various ammunition were seized. The investigation began in September of last year, when agents began to suspect an industrial warehouse in Santa Coloma de Cervelló was consuming a lot of electricity due to the activity carried out there. Observing it, they began to tie heads: many people came and went to deliver products, and they were always received by the same workers, who never left the warehouse. Later they discovered that they were marijuana gardeners.

Formally, most of the warehouses had tenants with no criminal record and supposedly legal activities, but behind it all, the Mossos d'Esquadra discovered a hierarchical and organized criminal group, with a leader who oversaw everything from a luxury apartment. They had the real estate agent, the front men, the gardeners, the people in charge of the cars to move the marijuana, the suppliers, and the supervisors. The real estate agent, with no criminal record, was a key figure: he looked for houses and warehouses (he even allowed them to plant crops in his deceased father's house) and then looked for people also with no criminal record to rent them in his name in exchange for a commission.

In prison

Of the 13 detainees, most of them without prior criminal records, eleven were brought before a court on March 13 and remanded in custody. They are charged with belonging to a criminal group, violating public health, electricity fraud, and illegal possession of firearms.

As part of this operation, officers from the Central Ballistics and Instrumental Traces Unit of the Scientific Police Division will be responsible for conducting forensic studies of the seized firearms. The specialists will enter and compare the markings on the projectiles and cartridge cases into the automatic ballistics information system. In this way, they will study the traceability of the weapons and determine whether they could be linked to any other investigation.

The increase in the detection of firearms linked to criminal activities led to the implementation, in 2023, of a specific plan by the force to address this phenomenon. Last year, 445 firearms with criminal links were seized, a 13% increase over the previous year. Police link this to the rise in the number of cannabis plantations detected in Catalonia in recent years.