Drug clan arrests in Almeria city

FOUR members of the same family are under arrest as part of a police operation into illegal marijuana cultivation in Almeria city.
The three men and a woman, aged between 33 and 56, all have criminal records police said.
The operation resulted in the dismantling of an indoor plantation and the seizure of more than 55 kilos of the drug and nearly 300 marijuana plants.
Officers carried out raids on five properties in all. They found illegal connections to the power supply in all them, and reported there had already been a fire in one due to electric overload.
Police first launched investigations at the end of August following an electricity supply company inspection prompted by the power overload, a common indication of illicit indoor marijuana plantations.
As the investigation progressed it became clear there was a sizeable plantation in a property in Calle Bahia de San Antonio. Investigators also established that four family members used the house, but lived in other nearby properties.
They also established that a couple living in a small house on the same plot had the job of tending to the cultivation and keeping a 24-hour a day lookout.
Further clues as to what the family were up to included sealed and blacked out windows on the properties and indications they had recently harvested a large crop of cannabis.