Marijuana plantations with illegal connections to the electrical grid accounted for 23 cases in the Lleida regions last year and represented 32.9% of all energy defrauded in the province. That volume reached 5,649,722 kilowatt-hours, the equivalent of the annual consumption of 1,614 households.
This figure contrasts with the numerical weight of these frauds within the provincial total. Endesa detected 935 electrical frauds in Lleida last year, but those linked to marijuana crops were a much smaller part of the total and, even so, absorbed almost a third of all stolen energy.
Crops accumulated 158 illegal connections in four years in Lleida
In the last four years, the Lleida regions have added 158 marijuana plantations with illegal connections to the grid. The annual distribution was 48 cases in 2022, 43 in 2023, 44 in 2024, and 23 in 2025.
In that period, the fraud associated with marijuana reached 28,790,409 kilowatt-hours out of a provincial total of 63,472,268. This places the weight of these crops at 47.7% of all energy defrauded in the province over the last four years.
The year with the greatest proportional impact was 2023. At that time, the plantations accumulated 8,318,075 kilowatt-hours defrauded out of a total of 13,330,142 in the province.
The illegal connection to the grid is part of the evidence that investigators use to locate indoor crops, as these facilities require high electricity consumption for lighting, ventilation, and climate control.
The operation on April 21 ended with 12 arrests and five prison entries
During the early morning of April 21, about 200 agents of the Mossos d'Esquadra deployed an operation against marijuana drug trafficking in La Mariola, L'Horta, and Seròs. The action concluded with 12 arrests.
After the operation, five of the arrested individuals were sent to prison. The investigation identified a leadership that selected the locations of the crops and also acted as an intermediary in the purchase of firearms to defend the plantations against possible assaults.
Electricity fraud is among the crimes investigated in these types of networks. Recent precedents also appear in other provinces, such as the dismantling of a network between Tarragona and Granada that operated under a business structure for selling products for home cultivation and supplied material for large-scale plantations.
The Prosecutor's Office proposes to toughen the penalty for electricity fraud linked to marijuana
Prosecutor's offices specialized in drug offenses consider the current penal framework insufficient for cases linked to marijuana. The delegate from Lleida pointed out that, if the stash is less than 10 kilos of net weight, the penalty ranges between one and three years.
That margin implies that, barring criminal records, the convicted person does not go to prison. The Special Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office therefore advocates for the creation of an aggravated subtype in the crime of electricity fraud when the fraud is intended for marijuana cultivation.
In Catalonia as a whole, 24,347 cases were opened last year for illegal connections, and 553 corresponded to marijuana plantations, which accounted for one-third of the defrauded energy.
The Penal Code currently sets a fine of three to 12 months for electricity fraud, although in cases linked to cultivation, it can reach 18 months in prison and fines of 24 months, in addition to compensation to electricity companies.