This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Police in Catalonia have seized dozens of marijuana plants from a roof terrace after social media users spotted the plantation in video footage filmed by a helicopter following the Vuelta a España cycling race.

Officers from the regional force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, headed to the town of Igualada, north-west of Barcelona, after video from Saturday’s stage eight was posted on social media.

AUGC Guardia Civil (@AUGC_Comunica) 🔴 🚁 El helicóptero de #LaVuelta19 descubre una plantación de marihuana en una azotea. pic.twitter.com/Zhry3x1rng

“We received information via social media that there was a marijuana plantation on the roof of a block of flats in Igualada,” said a spokeswoman for the force.

“We began an investigation, which is still under way, and we have seized 40 plants. For the moment, there have been no arrests.”

She added that officers were trying to determine who the plants had belonged to as the roof terrace was not connected to the flats.

The United Association of Guardia Civil officers later posted the revealing aerial shots on social media.

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Saturday’s rain-blasted stage was won by Sunweb’s Nikias Arndt. After Tuesday’s 11th stage, Primoz Roglic leads the race in the red jersey.

The Vuelta, a gruelling 21-day race through Spain and parts of France and Andorra, is the final Grand Tour of the year and finishes on 15 September.

Vuelta a España: Mikel Iturria wins stage 11 with gutsy solo attack Read more

On Tuesday, the Guardia Civil in Extremadura announced its largest ever seizure of marijuana in the western Spanish region.

Officers raided a plantation hidden on a farm near Alcuéscar in Cáceres province at the end of August, where they found 22,000 marijuana plants, 281kg of marijuana buds and a large amount of growing equipment.

Nine Albanian nationals were arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking, while a Spanish man was arrested on suspicion of people trafficking and employment offences.

Growing marijuana in Spain remains illegal despite consumption of the drug being decriminalised.