Air apparatus seized by drug traffickers to cool Cadiz classrooms against the heat

The heat has officially crept into everyday conversations. The thermometer began to approach 40 degrees in some points of the Andalusian community and in most of the region it has become common to live with 30. An escalation of temperatures that began weeks ago and that forced the Junta a de Andalucía to activate a plan in the classrooms that includes the end of classes at noon if several days are linked with temperatures above 39 degrees.

The solution to avoid the cancellation of school days, beyond the awnings that are being installed in the patios, involves the installation of refrigeration systems that the unions are demanding. But the process is not always as fast as students and parents want, so alternatives must be considered. And in the province of Cádiz, who is offering it is the Civil Guard. Because the institution, with prior judicial authorization, and after an agreement with the regional Administration, is delivering to the educational centers that request it, the air conditioning devices that intervene in drug dealers with indoor marijuana plantations.

The last delivery of refrigeration appliances was made days ago, after agents from the Main Post of Jerez de la Frontera arrested two people for a crop with 2,883 plants that they hid in a protected house in Estella del Marqués that they had occupied while its owner he was away for work.

A spokesman for the Armed Institute explained to El Confidencial that the first time they launched this initiative was in 2019 and that since then “we have done it with practically all the devices that we intervene in.”. “Recently we took a refrigerated truck loaded with hashish that has been left in storage at the food bank,” he adds..

The agent recounts that, “when the boom in indoor plantations broke out, it was a problem beyond police work, because these crops require important refrigeration facilities”. Each action against the marijuana drug dealer involved the seizure of a large number of air conditioners and fans that occupied a large storage space in the facilities of the Armed Institute and in the judicial warehouses and that “ended up rotting.”.

Another problem was the gases that these household appliances accumulate and the risk of contamination represented by their accumulation sine die. Reasons why “we spoke with the judicial depositary, consulted with the Asset Recovery and Management Office (ORGA), and the possibility of delivering them on deposit to educational spaces that might need them was positively valued”. The next step was to make a proposal to the Board and they requested a list of schools that wanted to be recipients of material of this type.. This is available to the Service Operations Center (COS) of the Civil Guard in Cádiz, which contacts them when there is stock..

“We try to deliver the devices to the schools and institutes close to the area where the seizure took place,” explains the aforementioned source, which details that “they have to come and pick it up and all they have to pay for is the installation.”. The delivery is made as a deposit and with the prior authorization of the judge who has coordinated the anti-drug operation. “They are not given as property, but really, it is very difficult for someone to claim them,” he adds..

They are “quite large airs, which are very good for the centers”, because in the south “the heat is pressing”. “So that they are thrown away, piled up and with the forecast that they become scrap metal, that a school take advantage of them”.

Air conditioning units and fans are not the only object of donations from the Civil Guard in the province. Converted into one of the most active areas of drug trafficking in Europe, the successive apprehensions show how drug traffickers constantly change methods to try to hide the caches. And food is one of the favorites. Shipments of fruit, vegetables, meat… that are delivered to food banks to be distributed among the most needy people.

The aforementioned source recalls that the first donation of this type that was made in the province was an exotic product within the local gastronomy: couscous.. In total, 45,000 kilos, including five tons of hashish that were seized in 2011.. “It was a shame to throw it away, and obviously, neither the owner of the couscous, nor the drug dealers, were going to claim it”. Although the shopping list is much broader.

In a place where fishing is an important part of the local economy, poachers are also trying to make a profit.. The apprehensions of the 'anglers', the shellfish baskets, as well as the seizures of tuna, a product that has become the image of Cádiz, are also distributed among organizations of the Third Sector. “We have an agreement with the Petaca Chico trap and it allows us to store perishable food in the refrigerators of its facilities and the College of Veterinarians certifies us, or not, if they are suitable for consumption.” If so, it is donated to soup kitchens “under receipt”. Control, above all.