Spain's first opium poppy plantation bust made by police in Cartagena

Officers arrested two brothers and suspect the plantation was intended to produce heroin “on a large scale”

Opium poppies found growing by police in Algeciras in 2022

National Police have discovered an illegal opium plantation for the first time ever in Spain, at a rural estate in Cartagena.

The operation is subject to a secrecy order imposed by the investigating court in Cartagena, but according to local Spanish press, sources close to the investigation have revealed that two brothers were arrested and 507 ‘Papaver somniferum’ (opium poppy) plants were seized at the property in the rural district of El Beal.

The police sources identified the estate as the Finca Los Caballeros, which is about 3,000 square metres. They noted that the plants seems to be at an early stage of growth, but there was enough space to grow a full crop of up to 120,000 poppies.

They suspect that the plantation was not only intended to produce heroin “on a large scale”, but also to adulterate synthetic drugs and mass-produce poppy seeds.

The arrests took place on April 30 and the suspects, who have no previous criminal records, are accused of drug dealing and belonging to a criminal organisation.

The men were detained outside their respective homes between 8am and 9am. Shotguns were found in both properties, no less than five in a bedroom at once, but the firearms were all legally registered so could not be seized.

However, two pellet shotguns found at the finca were confiscated, along with three vehicles, a military green Suzuki Vitara, a white Citroen Berlingo and a black Skoda Fabia, which were taken to a judicial pound in Murcia.

The police calculate that a full crop of 120,000 plants could produce up to 72kg of raw opium.
The morphine obtained from this amount could make up to 9.72kg of pure heroin, and then adulterated with other substances to make up to 48kg of the drug, with a street value of approximately €24.7 million.

By the same method, the 507 poppies seized could have eventually produced heroin worth €206,000.

The seizure was so unprecedented that the National Police drugs and organised crime unit (UDYCO) has no specific procedure for a case such as this.

The National Police did seize 867 opium poppies in Algeciras in May 2022, but these were growing in a public space accessible to anyone in the Barrio de San Bernabé.

Only one company is authorised to legally grow opium poppies in Spain, which has over 6,000 hectares of plantations in the regions of Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, La Rioja and the Basque Country.
It extracts the alkaloids for morphine and codeine from the plants at facilities in Toledo and Albacete.

Image: Policía Nacional