Police anti-drug operation in Catalonia/ 50 arrests, including Albanians

2025-06-03 18:05:00, Kronika CNA

The Catalan police deployed more than 400 officers this Tuesday morning in two operations against drug trafficking. Organized crime established in Catalonia and linked to drug and weapons trafficking. The double operation covers multiple locations throughout Catalonia and according to sources within the force consulted by ARA, 28 arrests have been made. The Civil Guard has also launched an operation against drug trafficking in Barcelona and Girona, with 19 searches and up to 22 arrests. In total, up to 50 arrests were carried out this morning between the two police forces.

The two Mossos d'Esquadra operations are two separate investigations, one carried out by the Barcelona DIC (Institute for Criminal Investigation) and which has lasted two years, and another led by the Girona DIC (Institute for Criminal Investigation) which began a year ago. In both cases, the offensive aims to dismantle criminal gangs dedicated to marijuana trafficking, with plantations spread across the country.

The operation carried out by the Barcelona Police has resulted in eleven arrests, as reported by the Spanish daily elcasonational.cat, and the dismantling of a criminal organization that controlled at least one marijuana plantation that has already been raided. The Catalan police found hashish, heroin, marijuana buds and four firearms with ammunition. The raids took place in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Sant Pedro de Ribes, Cubelles, Sant Pedro Molanta, Roda de Berà, El Vendrell and Els Garidells.

The action was carried out in plantations, warehouses and also villas converted into nurseries and marijuana farms, as well as in the homes of those considered leaders of the three organizations that have been investigated in recent months and who, although not directly related and investigated separately, were connected.

Although around fifty people have been arrested, including Mossos and Civil Guard operatives, most of those arrested are "gardeners", those responsible for monitoring the plantations, low-profile people in the drug organization. These are often young people, transferred from Albania, to work cultivating and protecting the plantations that their bosses have at maximum yield in homes, apartments and warehouses across the country and Europe. /CNA