One of the largest synthetic drug laboratories in Spain dismantled in Valencia

A criminal organization dedicated to drug trafficking decided to vary its business strategy with the installation of a large laboratory for the production of methamphetamines (MDMA), synthetic drugs. The two leaders of the gang, with a history in Spain for drug trafficking, signed two Dutch chemists with extensive experience in the manufacture of narcotics and an extensive criminal record. From Altea (Alicante, 23,820 inhabitants), the city where they were based, they moved their operations center until they found a dilapidated country house hidden in a remote wooded area of ​​Sueca (Valencia, 28,086 inhabitants). A police investigation managed to find this hiding place and, in this way, dismantle one of the largest drug laboratories discovered in Spain.

The operation ended on January 17 with 12 detainees, alleged members of an international drug distribution network, of which four, the two ringleaders and the chemists, have been imprisoned by order of a court in Benidorm. The agents seized 1,900 liters of MDMA which, after undergoing a crystallization process, would have been converted into more than two tons of ecstasy pills with a market value of 105 million euros, according to police calculations.

Operation Chamizo, named after the precarious housing where the laboratory was located, began last October. A rumor of the existence of a possible drug laboratory located in the Levant peninsula had reached the headquarters of the narcotics group at the Benidorm police station. The investigation began by monitoring two people who could be linked and who were finally arrested. The surveillance of these two suspects led to the identification of all members of the group, including the leaders and two Dutch citizens specialized in the chemical treatment of drugs. One of them, in fact, had already been arrested in his country for his links to drug trafficking. All of them “led normal lives,” said Víctor Galvañ, head of the investigation, in a press conference in which the head of the Benidorm police station, Ceferino Serrano, and the inspector of the General Judicial Police Station also participated. Juan de Mata Muñoz Molina. “They did not use counter-surveillance maneuvers, they did not try to mislead, they drove at normal speeds,” Galvañ continues. Those being watched were conventional guys whose only point in common seemed to be “that they didn't have a job.”

All those arrested shared something else. Their constant comings and goings to the Valencian municipality of Sueca, famous for its rice crops, half an hour from Valencia and 100 kilometers from Altea, where those involved resided. Once there, the alleged criminals entered a remote, wooded area, where a narrow and dilapidated path was the only access to a dilapidated country house, with rickety doors and half-built walls.. The investigators verified that the 12 members of the criminal gang went to the chamizo frequently. They entered with all types of protection, such as masks or personal protective equipment (PPE), and changed their clothes every time they left the premises. They transported abundant plastic jugs in vehicles of different brands and colors that they alternated on each trip. From outside, the agents also detected a strong chemical odor. No more signs were needed. Everything indicated that that rustic and lost house housed a drug laboratory.

The tracking of the suspects had also denoted a hierarchy and a well-defined distribution of tasks. In addition to the ringleaders and the chemists, one of those investigated was the driver for the rest of the gang. Another moved the material to what in slang is known as nurseries, warehouses prior to sale to the consumer. A third member was the security guard who prevented robberies perpetrated by other gangs, while another member of the group took advantage of the fact that he had no criminal record to give up his documentation when renting homes, from which they moved frequently.

On January 17, the agents decided to stop two of the suspects, who were leaving the laboratory in a vehicle loaded with several bottles. As they did so, both attacked the officers, who emerged unharmed from the attempted attack. Thus began a chase of just 200 or 300 meters, after which the police managed to arrest the criminals and seize two five-liter containers with amphetamine inside. Police intervention had to be accelerated. The next day, January 18, the rest of the arrests and searches took place. In the homes of Altea, perhaps due to the passage of a day since the first arrests, the investigators found nothing. The homes used by the gang “gave a strong smell of ammonia, as if all areas had been cleaned and the machinery removed,” says Galvañ.

The interior of the rural house, on the other hand, accumulated between its peeling walls, without a trace of furniture, all the material necessary for the MDMA treatment, stacked and distributed throughout the different rooms according to their function. From the containers of 1,900 liters of methamphetamine, 1,000 of accelerants and precursors and another 1,000 of chemical waste, to a huge still, decanters, lathes, stoves, test tubes or precision scales. A material that would have put 2,185 kilos of pills on the streets, for a combined value of 105 million euros. In addition, the agents detected some tubes that were used to pour leftover chemical substances into the field. The operation thus culminated with the arrest of 12 people, two Dutch, one Spanish and the rest Moroccan, accused of crimes against public health, belonging to a criminal organization and another against the environment, for illegal dumping. After being handed over to the Investigative Court 2 of Benidorm, four of them went to prison.

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