The Guardia Civil have taken to using their helicopters to detect people growing cannabis sativa on the rooftop terraces, backed by ground units from local Guardia posts.

This was the case recently in the little village of Valor up in the Alpujarra Granadina. On this occasion, they were backed up by a Guardia Civil patrol from the command post in Órgiva.

There were two houses with rooftop plantations, in the first of which there were 39 plants and in the second, ten. The house owners, aged 40 and 38, have been charged with an offence against the Public Health Act.

When there are illegal, indoor plantations they are reasonably easy to trace because of several indicators: high-electricy consumption, the smell, and the noise of fans going day and night coming out of the building. Finding outdoor plantations are much harder, hence the use of helicopters and drones.

During the first operation of this kind using helicopters, which was in June this year, the Guardia Civil pilots detected 14 mini plantations when flying over the town of Escóznar (Lecrin Valley), netting 2,700 plants of different sizes.

(News: Valor, Alpujarra, Granada, Andalucia)