Spain busts Chinese gang using ‘slaves’ to grow marijuana
- Thirty-six Chinese and Vietnamese men freed after being made to work round the clock in warehouses under ‘degrading conditions’
- Officers also freed 13 Chinese women the gang is believed to have forced to work as prostitutes
Spanish police said on Thursday they have broken up a Chinese gang that allegedly forced illegal migrants to work in “conditions of semi-slavery” to produce marijuana for export across Europe.
The gang is suspected of growing marijuana in warehouses rented in industrial areas, mainly in the eastern region of Valencia. The product was shipped to other EU nations, especially Britain and the Netherlands, via private courier firms in small packages labelled as containing clothes, police said in a statement.
Thirty-six Chinese and Vietnamese men who had been forced by the gang to work round the clock in the warehouses in “degrading conditions of semi-slavery” were freed during the operation, which followed an eight-month investigation, the police statement added.
“Living conditions inside the warehouses were very precarious, unhealthy and with poor hygiene,” police said.
“Some of the victims said they were not allowed out on the streets and could not communicate with the outside; they only received food to be able to continue working like slaves.”