About 50 civil guards arrive early in the morning in Iniesta (Cuenca) and spread out across the crop fields in the area. They are not looking for drugs or weapons, or even illegal plantations: they are here to unmask water theft in an area with an overexploited aquifer.
Non-compliers use all kinds of strategies: hidden wells, underground diversions, fake meters (with rods or giant magnets) and buried pipes so that it is not known when they are watering.