• There are six detainees who are alleged to be responsible for the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons and money laundering.

• The organization had the capacity to export large quantities of marijuana from Murcia to other European countries.

• In France and in the four house searches carried out in the Region of Murcia, marijuana and numerous assets related to drug trafficking valued at more than 2.5 million euros have been seized.

June 30, 2025.- The Tax Agency and the Civil Guard, in collaboration with the Montpellier Customs Service (France), have carried out Operation Thor-Cerriche, an investigation that has dismantled a criminal network based in the Region of Murcia involved in international marijuana trafficking.

Investigators have arrested six members of the criminal group—four in Murcia and two in France—as alleged perpetrators of organized crime, drug trafficking, illegal weapons possession, and money laundering. They have also seized marijuana and other drug-related assets.

Officials from the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance Service and Judicial Police specialists from the EDOA (Organized Crime and Anti-Drug Team) of the Civil Guard began the operation at the end of last year to investigate events related to international marijuana trafficking in Spain and other European countries.

The first steps of the operation revealed the existence of a criminal organization with considerable criminal experience, based in southeastern Spain and with branches in France, Italy, and Poland. It was, therefore, an organization with the capacity to export large quantities of marijuana to other European countries.

The network used a farm in the Murcia municipality of Librilla to hide the drugs. When they had enough marijuana to make a shipment, they rented a warehouse in an industrial park that they used to smuggle the drugs into the double bottoms of an international transport truck.

The heavy vehicle, with the drugs packaged and hidden in the false bottoms, left the industrial warehouse with half a load to complete it with another product of legal origin from a company, thus avoiding suspicion, and began the transport to France.

Collaboration with French customs authorities

The joint investigation team, comprised of officers from the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard, coordinated with French customs authorities to monitor the movements of vehicles and individuals involved in the investigation, as well as to intercept drug shipments to the neighboring country.

These devices bore fruit shortly afterward, when a shipment of marijuana was intercepted in France. It had been hidden in false bottoms cut into the roof of a truck's semi-trailer and had been loaded into an industrial warehouse under surveillance by investigators. The operation ended with the arrest of the two occupants of the vehicle, which had its false bottoms loaded with more than 200 kilos of marijuana.

Once all the necessary evidence was obtained, investigators carried out the exploitation phase of the operation, during which they entered and searched four properties in the municipalities of Murcia, Librilla, and Molina de Segura.

During the raids, investigators arrested the other four members of the plot, including its leader, on suspicion of belonging to a criminal organization, drug trafficking, illegal weapons possession, and money laundering.

Drugs and effects valued at more than 2.5 million euros

In France and in the four searches carried out in the Region of Murcia, investigators have seized 226 kilos of marijuana and have seized or frozen assets valued at more than 2.5 million euros, including more than 120,000 euros in cash, pounds sterling and Cuban pesos, a 22 mm caliber handgun with a loaded magazine, a simulated pistol, a bulletproof vest, handcuffs, a hunting machete, a night vision goggle, three passenger cars, an international transport truck, electronic and computer equipment, five high-end watches, and a collection of high-value silver coins. In addition, 20 properties have been immobilized.

The experience of the members of the now-dismantled criminal organization significantly hampered the operation due to the security measures they adopted, their high economic status, which facilitated the collaboration of others, and their geographical scope of influence.