One morning in October to Carmen (not her real name) came to him, a “very strong aroma of celery” when he opened the window of his house in Setenil de las Bodegas (Cádiz). Her husband, laughing, pulled her out of the doubt: “What that smell is marijuana.” The 24 hectares of hemp, supposedly industrial and legal, that grew to two miles a wristwatch with its aroma that it was collection time. But that neither came to pass. The managers of the plantation are investigated for an alleged crime against public health, after a theft uncovered that the levels of THC —the psychoactive element— are much higher than what is permitted.
“they Said it was to do drugs and textile. To see if it was for another thing…”, she drops the neighbor. The case has been placed at a strange crossroads to the Prosecutor’s office anti-Drug of Cadiz.
for more than six months that the leaves of the cannabis had begun to grow in the shelter of the Dehesa del Pilar, a plot of land of 80 hectares of olive groves, around an andalusian farmhouse. A Spanish, an English and an Italian are responsible for a culture supposedly legal) that passed unnoticed if it were not for the smell that appeared with the dew each morning. The first —a gypsy whose identity is unknown in Setenil— put the land; the other two are part of an English company that is encapricha of the area and offer the latifundista be passed to the planting of industrial hemp, allowed in Spain, to produce textile fibers and cosmetics.
But all is twisted, on the 11th of October. The security service of the culture to report the theft of some of the plants. “It was a van medium white”, summarizes a close collaborator to the landowner from cadiz, who prefers to remain anonymous. A vehicle of the same features the star against a horse in the nearby village of Algodonales in the early morning hours of that same day. The occupants to flee. The paquetera is so crammed with cannabis that you have to empty a truck of the municipal services of the town, according to a report in the Diario de Cádiz. The Guardia Civil is in charge of the research, associates the finding with the farm and discover that the bushes exceed the levels of THC allowed.
“more than 14%, while in Spain the legal standards for the industrial hemp are 0.2%,” says a source close to the case. A few weeks later, more than 50 agents were presented at the Dehesa del Pilar, just the day that began the collection. The estate remained sealed by order of the Court 3 of Arcos de la Frontera. At this time, new analytical culture have produced disparate figures: areas in which the THC concentration is below what is permitted to others in the that far exceeds. The average exceeds 5%.
The Spanish businessman has submitted invoices showing that you bought varieties allowed of cannabis seeds. The rest of the responsible persons also have shown some analytical levels are within the allowed parameters. “Who makes sure that it met the chain of custody in those tests, which are the same plants?”, is question a source judicial. The partners also claim that weather conditions could trigger the THC levels. The office of the Prosecutor doubts that this is possible and has commissioned a report to the Ministry of Agriculture.
