As part of operation Tomok TSH, the Barcelona City Police and the Spanish Civil Guard dismantled a criminal organisation devoted to human trafficking for criminal purposes. During the operation, five victims were freed and eleven people arrested. Cannabis plants, money, jewellery and documentation were also confiscated.

Operation Tomok TSH

The investigation began at the start of 2025 after two people of Vietnames origin were detected in Barcelona as victims of human trafficking, forced to engage in illicit activities.

The victims were forced to look after indoor marijuana plantations around the province. They were victims of a criminal organisation that was exploiting vulnerable people to cultivate the plants, and to produce and distribute psychotropic substances on a large scale.

The victims were all Vietnamese, with no social roots, economic resources or knowledge of the language. The were subjected to threats, physical aggression and confinement, forced to work continuously in inhuman conditions. They were kept under lock and key, with no remuneration, receiving food sporadically and under constant surveillance by members of the organisation, who also threatened their relatives in their country of origin.

Over the months, information obtained in interviews with the victims, together with surveillance operations and monitoring, allowed for the identification of various members of the organisation who carried out the tasks of capture, transport and guarding the victims, as well as feeding them occasionally where they were being held.

During the exploitation stage in October, four raids were carried out: three in Barcelona and one in Sant Pere de Ribes (Barcelona), plus an inspection of some public premises.

In all, the operation confiscated 1,357 cannabis plants and 2,622 grammes of marijuana, plus 36,700 euros in cash, jewellery and materials for falsifying identity documentation.

Three other victims of human trafficking were located during the raids, all of them of Vietnamese origin and exploited by the network. These people have now been freed and placed under protection.

Headed by the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Barcelona Civil Guard, the operation also included the participation of the Cynological Service with sniffer dogs to detect drugs and money, the USECIC Citizen Security Unit, the Premià de Mar Tax and Borders Patrol and the GAP Rapid Action Group.

For the City Police, officers from the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Group took part, as did the UREP and the police stations of L’Eixample and Gràcia.

Staff from the Medical Emergencies System were also present.

The case is being investigated by Barcelona’s Investigating Court 13.