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A huge indoor cannabis plantation exploded in Sophienalpe the previous week. According to information from the APA, the police came across the plantation more or less by accident on February 16, which, as a police report points out, was “handled in a very professional manner.” A total of 1,420 cannabis plants in full bloom were discovered in a hotel building that had been empty for years. The plants had reached a height of up to 1.3 meters.
A worker at the scene was arrested. The system was installed on the second and third floors of ten previous hotel rooms, and the police confiscated the equipment necessary for its operation (lamps, fans, ballasts, ventilation devices and fertilizers).
Investigators found the beautiful plantation on the outskirts of Vienna after a European arrest warrant was executed against the man who took over the building complex last summer. The 55-year-old wanted to revive the restaurant and dreamed of being able to serve hundreds of guests on the weekends after the corona pandemic. Czech law enforcement agencies pushed him through the bill. They suspect that he belongs to a drug gang that is said to have produced methamphetamine, a stimulant and euphoric drug for the holidays, in various laboratories in the Czech Republic. In addition, the 55-year-old man is said to have been personally involved in the sale of 200 grams of cocaine.
The owner stated that he did not know anything.
The European arrest warrant was executed at the address of the 55-year-old man in the district of Bruck an der Leitha. House searches were subsequently carried out, including at the Sophienalpe building complex in Penzing, which the man had rented in August 2020.
In the main building, the restaurant, there was nothing suspicious, but officials were surprised when they inspected the hotel. The 55-year-old says he has nothing to do with the indoor plantation, which extends over two floors. “He had no use for this building and therefore rented it out to others,” explained his defense attorney Mathias Burger Friday afternoon at the request of the APA. His client did not realize what the subtenant was doing there: “He was not interested in anything either. He paid the rent regularly.”
Search agents are reportedly in doubt about the existence of this tenant, who is said to be Bulgarian. Surveys are being conducted on whether this actually exists. Other possible accomplices and aides are also being investigated. (apa)
