How Spain has become a world power and a mecca for drug vampires

With a useful agricultural area of ​​more than 23 million hectares, 17 of them plantations, Spain is Europe’s garden for many crops. For example, much of the garlic in the European Union (EU) comes from Castilla-La Mancha and the Spanish countryside is also key in the production of citrus fruits, pistachios or olive oil, to name just a handful of examples. On the global map, however, our country stands out (and with an overwhelming weight) in another much less known business: that of the poppy, or opium poppy. Thousands of well-monitored hectares are dedicated to its supply, allowing Spain to stand out as one of the great international powers in the legal supply of opium for morphine for medicinal use.

Also known as A sleepy poppy It has another added effect: it turns Spain into a pilgrimage point for the ‘opium vampires’.

Spain, global potential. The idea is conveyed by the United Nations itself. For years, the report published by its International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) clearly reflects the weight of Spain in the production of legal opium. And on a global scale, which transcends the European framework. In its 2022 analysis, the international organization pointed out, for example, that the previous year Spain had been the world’s largest legal producer of opium for morphine.

To be more precise, INCB technicians calculate that two years ago in Spain the equivalent of 100 tons of morphine was produced, which placed it at the top of the world ranking, followed closely by Australia (96 tons), Turkey (69 t), France (37 t) and India (27 t). “Practically all world production in 2021 was concentrated in these five countries,” the supervisory board technicians concluded.

Adormidera “made in Spain”. Not only poppies come from Spanish fields for the production of morphine. The INCB report reveals that in 2021 our country was, along with Australia, the only one where poppy rich in codeine was grown. And while in the first nation plantations were reduced by half, in Spain they almost tripled compared to 2020. The country also appears on the map of poppy rich in thebaine, although in a scenario of global production decline, the The area dedicated to its cultivation was significantly reduced.

Regarding stocks of raw materials of morphine-rich opiates, the United Nations placed Turkey in first place, with 303 tons, followed by Spain in second place. France, Australia and India completed the Top 5. Together with Japan, Hungary, the United States and the United Kingdom, the United Nations agency estimated that 99% of the world stock was brought together.

The last “photo”. The 2023 INCB report shows that Spain continues to enjoy a prominent role in the world map of legal opium for morphine. “Australia and Spain remain the largest producers of raw materials rich in morphine in 2022 and the only producers of poppy rich in codeine and oripavine, while Australia was the only producer of poppy rich in thebaine,” describe their technicians. In fact, although in 2022 the area dedicated to poppy from which alkaloids are extracted was reduced overall, Spain and India saw an increase in the cultivation of plants rich in morphine.

According to JIFE results, at least in 2014, much of the production came from a handful of countries. Including of course Spain. “The main producer of poppy straw rich in thebaine was Australia, followed, in descending order, by Spain and France. The cultivation of poppy rich in codeine was only reported by Australia and France,” the board’s technicians say.

But… Where is it produced? Opium for medicinal use is not just any business. Hence everything that revolves around him is not conventional either. The crops from which the poppy straw is extracted are managed discreetly, without revealing where exactly they are located for security reasons. In the sector, however, there is a fundamental name: Alcaliber, which boasts of having been managing poppy crops for more than 40 years and has “one of the most modern plants in the world” for the production of opiates, a facility in which the alkaloid-rich poppy straw removed from the fields.

“Alcaliber annually cultivates more than 6,000 hectares of A sleepy poppy located in different geographical areas throughout Spain, with the aim of obtaining the maximum yield from the harvest”, explains the company on its corporate website. The firm has a long history behind it that goes back decades and links it to the Abelló saga. In 2018 it was sold to the British group GHO for an amount that, according to financial sources, was valued at 250 million euros.

Acres of white. “We are world leaders in the production of morphine and we can be very proud of that,” explained last year the CEO of Alcaliber, José Antonio de la Puente, to The Mailwhich specifies that the company is the only one that has Health authorization in Spain for the cultivation of the A sleepy poppy and the production of alkaloids for medical purposes.

To achieve this, it relies on a fundamental leg: crops managed by farmers who dedicate thousands and thousands of hectares to white poppies. The average is around 10,000 hectares per year, although this area can vary from one year to the next due to issues such as the guidelines set by the United Nations to ensure the balance between the supply and demand of opiates.

Well-localized production. The majority of these white flower poppy fields are located in Castilla-La Mancha, more specifically in Toledo, Albacete and Ciudad Real; although they can also be found in other places, such as Castilla y León, La Rioja or the Basque Country. “They are profitable crops as long as you remove at least 2,500 kilos of poppy straw per hectare,” he explains to The Mail one of the farmers who dedicates about 50 hectares to poppy production.

The “opium vampires”. That the exact location of the sleepy plantations is almost a secret is explained, to a large extent, by those known as “opium vampires”, or poppiespeople who dedicate themselves to traveling through the regions of Spain where plantations are concentrated in search of plants. Both those that are born wild, on the margins of roads and isolated fields, and those that are cultivated in professional farms such as those in Alcaliber.

“Vampires” may sound extravagant, but it has its logic and is based on its way of working: los poppies They use small blades to cut part of the plant and extract a latex with narcotic effects. To do so, they must evade the surveillance of the Civil Guard and the farmers themselves. At the end of spring 2023, for example, the authorities arrested a young man who was carrying 22 g of opium collected in a wild plantation and in 2011 the Civil Guard identified two Italians in the province of Toledo who had managed to collect 84 grams. which would have earned them around 3,400 euros on the black market.

They are not exceptional cases. Years later they hunted another Portuguese who was carrying 81 grams of opium. The Mail It specifies that in the province of Toledo alone, 80 complaints were filed between 2021 and 2022 for possession or consumption of opium.

A tragic pilgrimage. There are times when the pilgrimage of the poppies He ends up with a much worse fate than the Civil Guard police station or the courts. In Spain there have already been cases of “opium vampires” who end up dying from drug consumption. It happened in 2009, when Pasquale, a 32-year-old Italian, died in Albacete, where he was cutting opium plants in search of their latex. The investigation revealed that there were opium alkaloids in his system, as well as cocaine, cannabis and alcohol. A few years ago another young man, in this case Irish, lost his life in similar circumstances in Toledo.

Images | Wikipedia and MV Manual (Flickr)

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