Drug clan squats raided
Three homes contained marijuana plantations and other drugs, according to the Guardia Civil
AN INVESTIGATION into an illegally occupied house being used to deal drugs in Busot led Guardia Civil to an organised gang whose members were connected by family ties.
The occupants were also using two other illegally occupied houses, one in Busot as well and one in Monforte del Cid, and the suspects belonged to three clans that were related to each other, according to a spokesman for the force.
Officers raided the homes on March 25 and discovered a sophisticated cryptocurrency mining operation setup in one of the homes in Busot, with more than 30 processors, that was illegally connected to the electricity supply and kept cool with an industrial fan over 1.5 metres high.
The gang was expanding the operation and officers also seized numerous new devices that were still in their original packaging.
The three homes also contained marijuana plantations and other drugs, as well as firearms in two of them – including a pistol that was loaded and ready to fire – and a stash of hashish in the one in Monforte del Cid.
The plantations were insulated with foam rubber and aluminium foil to avoid detection from outside of the heat emissions from the lamps, the noise and the smell. Officers seized 22 kilos of dried and packaged marijuana, 334g of hashish, 18g of cocaine and 554 cannabis plants, as well as 30 computer processors, two vehicles, €1,090 in cash, numerous pieces of jewellery, two 9mm pistols and silencers for them, copious ammunition and four illegal knives, amongst other material used for criminal activity.
A total of 11 people were arrested and two more investigated, eight men and five women aged between 22 and 64, 12 of them Spanish and a Moroccan who allegedly supplied the gang with drugs.
They are accused of growing and preparing marijuana, drug dealing, money laundering, illegal possession of weapons, electricity
fraud and belonging to a criminal organisation.
The security forces operation was carried out by officers based in El Campello, with support from colleagues in Jijona, San Juan, Torrevieja and the Alicante sniffer dog unit, as well as Busot local police and Elche local police drone unit.
A court in San Vicente del Raspeig remanded five of the
prime suspects in custody, including a 45-year-old Spaniard implicated in numerous anti-drug operations by Guardia Civil from El Campello for more than a decade, and a Moroccan man aged 25.
The suspects have numerous police records for drug dealing offences committed all over the country, the spokesman added.