Police Busts Giant Marijuana Ring in Spain, Netherlands

Spanish police on Saturday said a giant drug ring has been busted in Spain and the Netherlands, leading to the arrest of 21 people and the seizure of some 13,000 marijuana plants.

The justice ministry announced the seizure in a statement, saying it was one of Spain's biggest successes in the fight against drugs on record.

The majority of the people arrested, suspected of cultivating the plants and trafficking, were Dutch nationals, it said.

The ministry described the network as being perfectly organized which used highly qualified staff in the cultivation of its marijuana plants in the south-eastern province of Malaga.

"Staff specialized in the harvesting of the substance came specifically from Holland," the statement said, adding the drug was then sent to the Netherlands for distribution.

When the traffickers returned to Spain from the Netherlands, they brought ecstasy with them for distribution on Costa del Sol.

On Friday, Spain announced it had seized 32 tonnes of hashish in a truck carrying melons from Morocco.