Two installers of air conditioning devices, necessary in the ‘indoor’ plantations, assure EL PERIÓDICO that these are increasingly frequent black orders in the trade | The Mossos warn of the corrupting power of drug money and speak of collusion between legal and criminal structures
The seductive power of black money that moves marijuana has the capacity to corrupt fundamental pillars of a democratic society such as police officers, politicians or lawyers, as have been warned for years by the Mossos d’Esquadra, but it also has the ability to tempt less obvious economic sectors, such as transporters, light bulb sellers or plumbers, trades that profit from the cannabis ‘boom’ that Spain is experiencing as legal suppliers of materials or services to drug traffickers. The policemen describe it as “collusion” between legal structures and criminal structures. EL PERIÓDICO, from the Prensa Ibérica group, has interviewed two plumbers who, under anonymity, admit to having installed air conditioning devices to cool ‘indoor’ plantations located in Catalonia.
Working for the owners of marijuana nurseries is “very sweet”, explains one of them. The organizations – and the most modest traffickers – are loyal customers. If they know they can count on the services of an installer, they always work with the same one. “They can’t call just anyone because they run the risk of you discovering his scam. In addition, they pay “in black”, “in advance” and “whatever you ask for”. “They don’t haggle,” she reiterates.
hot plantations
An ‘indoor’ plantation artificially reproduces the climatic conditions in which plants grow outdoors. Filling a potting space is not a problem. Nor is preparing a ‘drop by drop’ irrigation system. The complicated thing is to replace the sun. for that they use sodium bulbs between 600 to 1,000 watts, They emit radiation similar to that of the sun. Each of these bulbs spends daily more electricity than a whole familyexplains the Endesa inspection chiefwhich points out that for this reason all –or almost all– the facilities are illegally tapped into the network and have become a very serious problem of electricity fraud. They also generate a lot of heat. So much so that plants cannot grow without an air conditioner to cool them. That is where the figure of the installer who they go to before the plantation is operational comes in.
The traffickers used to assemble the electrical installations on their own. But they use licensed professionals for air conditioners. And these, despite the fact that they “always” go to the apartments “before” the marijuana has been planted, they know that they are installing for dealers: the machines are “oversized”They want appliances of 3,000 or 4,000 frigories for rooms that would do with much less powerful air conditioners. And often they ask to be hung three feet above the ground. Working before marijuana grows does serve to reduce the risk of being investigated by the police, they say. They try not to do “maintenance” because if they were caught in a police raid working next to the plants, that could “lead trouble.”
One of the two installers assures that these works represent a bonus that he does not declare and that he is not going to stop doing them. The other, on the contrary, assures that for a matter of principle he will not accept the job the next time a trafficker contacts him. Something that will happen. “Surely, any installer in Catalonia He ends up falling one, two, three or four floors of marijuana“.
An emerging sector
Raul RodriguezCEO of the Federation of Gremis d’Instal·ladors de Catalunya (FEGiCAT)warns the plumbers who are willing to mount an electrical installation for a marijuana plantation – who are also illegally tapped into the network – that they are exposing themselves to run out of license. Also remember that in the event of an accident – these crops frequently cause fires – they will also be responsible. However, he qualifies that air conditioner installers do not have to know the use that the customer will make of the device. “If a kitchen seller sets up a kitchen and it ends up being used to cook drugs, it is not the seller’s responsibility,” she argues.
Furthermore, the director of FEGiCAT does not believe that it is a union seduced by the black money from marijuana because it is currently experiencing significant growth: “The level of demand for renewable energy devices has exceeded the supply, there are companies that have a list of waiting months, and it is also one of the sectors that pays its workers the best”. “I don’t think they risk losing their license and being left without a job like that,” he reasons.
Collaboration with drug trafficking
More forceful is the chief of inspections of Endesa, who is detecting more and more professional marijuana facilities, and stresses that accepting these jobs is “collaborating” with marijuana drug trafficking.
For the Mossos, Catalonia has established itself in recent years as the main European territory of production and export of dope. A scenario, advanced by this newspaper in 2017, which has attracted mafias international who settle here to industrially cultivate cannabis that they later sell to the rest of Europe. The easy money provided by a drug, which in Spain is persecuted by more tolerant laws than those in other countries, gradually persuades more citizens Y Business.