Marijuana farm in beach villas

Suspected drug baron from Finestrat 'ruled gang with an iron fist' and paid himself annual six-figure sums, say police – as well as defrauding the grid of €80,000 worth of electricity

A HIGHLY professional criminal gang with a strict hierarchy was netting €637,000 a year in profits from exporting drugs to central and eastern Europe and Asia, right under the noses of holidaymakers and expat pensioners, according to the Guardia Civil.

The five members of the impeccably-organised racket rented three huge, luxury villas on San Juan beach with over an acre of private land, shelling out an average of €3,500 per month for each property in rent, explained a spokesman for the force.

But they did not pay a single cent for electricity, since the massive amounts they used to feed their marijuana farm were siphoned off the public grid through a complex system they had developed themselves, hidden two metres underground. Their power consumption would have cost them an estimated €80,000.

Sophisticated hydroponics kept the 3,000-plus cannabis plants producing up to 100 kilos of marijuana from each of its four annual harvests. Tight security systems used latest-generation alarms and CCTV cameras connected to WiFi, so the gang could keep an eye on their crops from any location and around the clock, enabling them to remain under the radar for months. Even once discovered this made it tricky for police to gain access and catch them on the premises.

'Slave-like conditions'

A raid on a villa in Finestrat, occupied by a 49-year-old Lithuanian man, set the ball rolling.

He is said to be the ringleader and conducted operations with an iron fist, keeping his three farmers – a Russian aged 32, an Albanian of 29, and a 41-year-old Vietnamese – in conditions of 'near slavery'.

The three men each occupied one of the San Juan villas, and a Lithuanian woman, 46, had a supporting rôle.

She is the only gang member who has been released on bail while all the others have been remanded in custody.

All the proceeds from the international sales were transferred to accounts in Lithuania in the alleged drug baron's name. During the swoop in both towns, police confiscated 3,000 fully-grown plants plus 25 kilos of marijuana buds, 159 cannabis plant-dryers, two strimmers used for harvesting the buds, several water tanks – each holding 520 litres – halogen spotlights, carbon filters, air-conditioning units, fans, mobile heating units, industrial-sized propane gas bottles, a top-of-the-range van worth €40,000, CCTV cameras, movement sensors, laptop computers and mobile phones.