The tourist resorts of Costa Adeje, Playa de las Américas y Los Cristianos have seen a considerable increase in the number of cannabis associations over the last few years.
Members of the security forces came to be convinced that on any major street o shopping centre with activity there were any of these establishments.
According to the latest research and counts carried out by the National Policein these enclaves of Adeje and Arona as many as 112 clubs of these characteristics. All of them were perfectly located and identified.
Regulations
These are premises that are not supposed to make any kind of profit, as stipulated in the legislation that protects them. This legislation stipulates that, in addition to not declaring any kind of profit, they do not have to pay any tax; they are not subject to any requirements for opening and do not have to pass the health checks.
In other words, an ideal cover for those who are looking for a quick profit outside the law and with a product in great demand by young and not-so-young people who are on holiday and want to enjoy nightlife every day of the week.
Southern Police Station
Agents of the Narcotics Group from the Tenerife South Police Station explain that, "in order to better understand the criminal characteristics of the activity of many of these associations, we must briefly mention the legal basis that allowed them to be set up".
They point out that these clubs are set up "under the cover of the right of association which is regulated in Organic Law 1/2002 of 22 March 2002, and are based on the non-prohibition of the self-consumption or of the shared use of cannabis, provided it is done within a private space".
The initial intention is that such clubs would have a certain number of members, who would plant cannabis and consume it there.
Marijuana and other drugs
But in the south of Tenerife and in many other places, some individuals took advantage of this legal cover of association to sell marijuana and other types of drugs. And that is where the illegality begins.
According to agents who have carried out operations to dismantle these points in Costa Adeje, Playa de las Américas and Los Cristianos, "some of these innocuous associations generated up to 100,000 euros a month in gross profits".
Business
They clarify that, "if we take into account that" in that coastal strip "there were more than a hundred associations of this type, we are in a position to venture that the business was of such magnitude that in one day it could reach 200,000 euros, which means that, without exaggerating in the slightest, between all of them they could generate an amount of money close to six million euros a month".
The defence lawyer of some of those investigated for managing these premises stated that the procedure used by the agents to intervene in the aforementioned premises was irregular, and this has been brought to the attention of the judicial authority.
Daily parties
These associations are located in nightlife areas in order to take advantage of the festive and playful atmosphere that is registered on a daily basis.
Tourist attraction is done through "public relations" who are placed at strategic points in the vicinity of shopping centres or streets where there are busy venues.
Like coffee shops
These individuals advertise the clubs as real coffee shops as if they were the well-known premises in the Netherlands where marijuana is legalised.
Access is free and uncontrolled to enclosed premises by means of doors controlled by security cameras and opening with an electronic intercom. These are hermetic spaces where drug dealers can carry out their illegal activity without police control.
A perfect example of this reality can be found in Veronicas, next to emblematic discotheques, where a solid metal door opened to people entering and leaving 20 to 25 minutes later.
In the establishments there is storage and direct sale of marijuana or hashish, with different variants and their respective prices. The products can be consumed inside the premises or in the public thoroughfare without any control.
Membership cards
The officers point out that, as these are supposed to be private associations, anyone who enters and consumes the substances must be a member of the association.
The issuing of the membership card is a new source of income, because it costs between 20 and 50 euros, depending on the appearance of the person caught on the street.
Tourists
The researchers found that most of the users of these clubs are tourists.The fact that they stay in hotels and spend only a short period of time in Tenerife does not make sense that they are real members of these clubs.
However, in addition to buying the drugs, they also have to pay the price of the card, which gives the traffickers a double income.
October to January
Between October 2024 and January 2025, the agents of the Narcotics Group of the Judicial Police of the Tenerife South Police Station proceeded to dismantle all the cannabis clubs that existed in their area, between La Caleta and Los Cristianos, both directly and indirectly.
They explain that 65 different associations were directly intervened to close down. But as some of them reopened after the sealing, the investigators had to carry out 78 interventions in total.
Indirectly, the clubs that were not intervened allegedly closed down voluntarily as they considered that they would be the next to be closed down.
Arrested and investigated
National police officers detained or left 127 people investigated. They seized more than 67 kilos of marijuana, more than 13 kilos of hashish, 2,600 joints, as well as other substances such as cocaine, LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, rosin and 221 marijuana plants.
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