An Irish woman has been arrested in Spain alongside three men after a police raid on fake cannabis clubs in Benidorm, which led to the seizure of 15 kilograms of marijuana. Spanish media reports indicate that the woman, who held an Irish passport, was taken into custody by agents of the Benidorm Local Police, alongside one American man and two Colombian men. The police operation also led to the seizure of what has been described as a “large quantity” of illegal narcotic substances which were being sold in two businesses that did not conform to the legal requirements of a cannabis club. The “clubs” were located in the Rincón de Loix area of Benidorm.
Cannabis clubs are private and only open to members, who pay a fee to join and are etablished in Spain as cultural associations. They provide places for consumption of the drug only in designated private spaces. The targeted clubs were both allowing non-members to enter and were not keeping records of attendance, while one of them lacked any kind of license. Police had already suspected that drugs were being trafficked in both establishments, which operated under cover as cannabis clubs.
The operation was carried out as part of a three-week inspection campaign. Alongside the four people who were arrested, police also seized 15 kilograms of marijuana, small quantities of hashish, cash, scales, and small plastic bags generally used in the sale of drugs. During the first raid on 5 May, agents seized 11.5 kilograms of marijuana; while in the second raid the following week, a further 3.5 kilograms of drugs were recovered.
All four arrested are accused of alleged crimes against public health, specifically trafficking in drug substances. According to Spanish law, the punishment for alleged drug trafficking is severe, ranging from fines to life imprisonment.
Reports of drug offences in the Costa Blanca have been growing for several years, with several cannabis clubs in various regions of Spain implicated in the crimes. In February, a joint operation led to another series of raids on clubs in the Valencia region with the seizure of marijuana, hashish, and 145 plants because they were illegally selling a harmful substance. The suspects in that operation had links to the Nordic countries, where the price of drugs is high and where the cannabis was destined for sale by organized crime gangs who buy cheaply in Spain. In Spain, legal consumer cannabis is grown for sale abroad, but the gang-run cannabis clubs are viewed differently and seen as hiding illegal activity. In 2017, for example, police raided the offices of a legal cannabis laboratory in Catalonia, alleging it was producing medical marijuana for export, but also providing the substance to criminal clubs in Spain, which was denied by the director of the facility.
