On the 12th of September the Guardia Civil confiscated 40,000 cannabis plants on a farm in Escúzar, which was supposed to be growing industrial hemp.

So far, just a routine bust, however, the Guardia Civil didn’t remove them, because they were waiting upon a magistrate to decide what to do with the crop. In the meantime, the criminal underworld was more speedy in coming to a decision and nicked most of it. Oops!

The farm had notices on the fencing around the field saying that it was authorised, cannabis industrial (hemp) but the crop wasn’t registered as such in reality.

Whilst the Guardia Civil were dismayed, to say the least, Christmas had come early for the new ‘owners’ of the crop, as it hadn’t cost a penny in cultivation and the police had kindly stopped slower, less audacious, competitors from moving in.

All Saturday night there was a coming and going of vans, it appears, with baddies tip-toeing around, chanting under their breaths, “she loves me, she loves me not,” as they removed the most lucrative part of each plant – the bloom or flower buds.

Eight vans were involved, but nobody thought to inform the Guardia Civil until it was too late, apparently. The Guardia Civil patrol car arrived just in time to see the last van departing – they tried to cut it off but failed miserably – however, they got the numberplate.

They waited at the home address of the van owner in Pinos Puente, an old hand on the wrong side of the law, and arrested him when he drove up. They also, took custody of the van as it still contained part of the stolen cargo.

By Sunday morning there were still a few, untouched plants in the field so come nightfall the Guardia Civil were going to take no chances and staked out the field. They did stop an empty flat-bed lorry in the vicinity but driving an empty lorry around is not a crime, so the driver was allowed to go on his way.

It’s not quite certainly who has more egg on their face; the tardy judge or the trusting Guardia Civil, but the clear winners were the fleet of vans that did a midnight run.

(News: Escuzar, Poniente, Granada, Andalucia – Photo: Pepe Marin/Ideal)