Three million euros seized in cash, 20 arrests… the laboratory seized in Madrid produced 100 kilos of cocaine per month

Une partie du magot raflé par les policiers espagnols. Europol

Des villas de luxe, des voitures de sport et des bateaux de plaisance ont également été saisis lors de ce coup de filet qui a ciblé 27 cibles en Espagne.

The photos published this Monday, May 6 by Europol are impressive: huge bundles of 100-euro and 500-euro bills; litter a table, around which are agents of the Guardia Civil. On April 30, during a raid supervised by the European police body and involving American agents from the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), a clandestine laboratory which was capable of producing 100 kilos of cocaine per month was dismantled near Madrid: 21 drums of chemicals were seized.

50 kilos of cocaine seized

The raid also targeted 27 properties in the provinces of Pontevedra, La Coruña and Madrid, where three million euros in cash were seized, and 20 suspects, 19 Spaniards and one Colombian were arrested. And the drug seizures are also impressive: 50 kg of cocaine, 1 kg of heroin, 1.7 kg of hashish, 1 kg of Tusi, 10 kg ;nbsp;kg of marijuana, 750g of MDMA, 10,000 ecstasy pills, 700 grams of amphetamines.

Luxurious villas and sports cars, and even pleasure boats have also been sequestered. The suspect is suspected of having imported tons of cocaine and coca leaves from South America to Spain in sailboats and catamarans from South America to Spain. Galicia, by hiring young skippers unknown to the justice system.

A new trend in cocaine cartels

The cocaine or coca leaves were then transported in vehicles equipped with special caches, to this laboratory installed in the suburbs of Madrid where the cocaine was extracted from the coca leaves. This case confirms a new trend in cocaine trafficking: the unprocessed drug is exported to be chemically processed in clandestine laboratories in the destination countries, which makes it possible to reduce their losses in the event of customs or police seizures.