The largest synthetic drug lab in Spain, with links to Colombia, is dismantled

Barcelona.- The Spanish Police has dismantled the largest synthetic drug production laboratory in Spain, and has arrested five people, including the leader of the organization, who maintained links with Colombia and with drug trafficking groups in the Netherlands. In the laboratory, located in an industrial area of Amposta (northeast of Spain), the National Police seized more than "half a thousand kilos" of MDMA valued at 31 million euros, as well as oil of this substance, liquid and solid precursors, and 28,600 euros in cash, they reported this Friday at a press conference. The representative of the Spanish Government in Catalonia (region where the laboratory was located), Carlos Prieto, highlighted the importance of the operation against this network, of Dutch origin, and warned that "one by one, with the time that is necessary" this type of organization will end up being stopped. According to investigators, the synthetic drug lab had not been active for more than a year, as the most difficult thing was to get it up and running, although when it was operating at full capacity it could produce about one hundred kilos of synthetic drugs per week. The leader of the organization directed the "cooks" in charge of making synthetic drugs and was in charge of providing security for the ship, controlling the cameras they had installed both inside and outside.

The two "cooks" arrested, who were in charge of processing the drugs in the clandestine laboratory - for whose installation specialists were required - moved directly from the Netherlands.

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The operation is the result of an investigation that began a year and a half ago, when it was found that a network of drug traffickers from the Netherlands, also linked to assassinations, tried to establish itself in Catalonia. Following the arrest of the group's leader last May as a result of an order issued by the Netherlands - which allowed him to be imprisoned - three searches were carried out, two in Spain and one in the Netherlands, in which 198 kilos of bicarbonate used as a cutting substance in laboratories were seized. Subsequently, on June 24th, it came to light that a meeting took place between a woman who traveled from the Netherlands to Spain to meet with the "cooks", which allowed the police to identify the members of the network and proceed to dismantle it.