Catalonia cracks down on booming marijuana industry

A police officer cuts marijuana plants in growing process at underground room of a house during a marijuana raid operation in Mataro, near Barcelona, Spain April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Pol Cartie

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Heavily-armed police officers arrived in a well-to-do Barcelona suburb before dawn to raid a two-storey house that turned out to be packed with 800 marijuana plants growing under powerful lamps.

The recent raid, on which Reuters accompanied the officers as they arrested two Albanian nationals, is part of an almost daily police routine in the Spanish region of Catalonia as it cracks down on the booming illegal production of marijuana, often run by local and international drug gangs.