Mexican cartels: dismantled in Spain “the largest coca processing laboratory in Europe”

The National Police of Spain dismantled a complex criminal network that included Mexican and Colombian drug traffickers to set up in the autonomous community of Galicia “the largest cocaine base paste processing laboratory in Europe”.

According to specialists from the Drug and Organized Crime Unit (UDYCO), the Latin American drug traffickers planned to set up laboratories for the processing of coca base paste into the final white powder “to lower costs and reduce risks”.

The operation by the Spanish authorities began in October 2022, when the agents detected that two drug traffickers settled in Gran Canaria, whom they had apparently already arrested on some occasion, They traveled regularly to Mexico, where the heads of the organization are allegedly located, which in turn collaborated with Colombian liaisons.

The criminal organization had a logistics distribution of functions. The Mexicans, for example, were in charge of providing the technical knowledge for the correct extraction and processing of coca base paste from Colombia.

The Colombians were the ones who provided the labor, that is, “chefs” or laboratory chemists who are experts in the process of cocaine processing. Another group of Spanish nationals involved were in charge of managing the transport of the substances from Colombia to their reception in Pontevedra, as well as the installation of the laboratory and the subsequent distribution of the final product in Spanish territory, which was packaged in marked partitions. with the logo ofsuperman”.

The bosses or “lords” of the criminal organization were in charge of giving instructions and orders from their places of origin, possibly Mexico, to their subordinates in Spain. They were also in charge of disbursing an approximate amount of two million euros to build the clandestine laboratory.

He “macrolaboratory” was installed in the province of Pontevedra and remained at full capacity 24 hours a day. There, the “cooks”, distributed in different shifts, were in charge of transforming the base paste into cocaine hydrochloride. The laboratory was capable of producing up to 200 kilos of cocaine per dayaccording to the reports of the authorities.

The criminal group had a high level of sophistication and used strong security measures such as “the use of nicknames, the use of shuttle vehicles, the use of transporter disguises or the submission of their communications to a strict security protocol”, detailed the National Police in a statement.

The operation yielded 18 detainees, including two Mexicans, in the Spanish communities of Galicia, the Basque Country, Madrid and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. As a result of 14 records madethe agents intervened 1,300 kilos of cocaine base paste, 151 kilos of cocaine hydrochloride, and more than 23,000 liters of precursors and other chemical substances.

To take the coca paste from Colombia to Spain, the drug traffickers used an extremely meticulous and elaborate method: embedding the drug in a kind of propeller used in quarry machinery to break stones. “To get it out of there they had to use radials and mechanical hammers”, explained a source of the investigation to The country.

In addition to the National Police, the Portuguese Judicial Police and the Colombian Anti-Narcotics Directorate (DIRAN) participated in the operation under the direction, coordination and supervision of the Special Anti-drug Prosecutor of the National Court and the Central Investigation Court Number 2 of the National Court.