Spanish police make largest ever marijuana bust, seize 50 tonnes

MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish police said on Friday they caught over 50 tonnes of marijuana, the largest amount of the drug ever seized in the country and weighing more than an adult humpback whale.

Eight farms have been dismantled in the northeastern region of Catalonia and 20 people were detained on suspected electricity fraud and offences against public health, police said in an statement.

All the farms were dissimulated as supposedly legal hemp plantations and registered as owned by a trading company and located among other warehouses with legal industrial activity.

In total, agents seized 52 tonnes of marijuana, with more than 187,000 plants and 19 tonnes of buds between June and October.

In a separate bust earlier this month, Spain announced it had seized 32 tonnes of marijuana, which set a record at the time.

In June, the Spanish Tax Agency said, in reference to a different drugs operation, that cannabis was worth “between 2,300 euros ($2,290.80) and 2,500 euros per kilogramme”.

At that rate, 50 tonnes could have an estimated total worth could reach 125 million euros.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Frank Jack Daniel)