Madrid (EFE).- The National Police, together with the Judicial Police of Portugal, have dismantled in Pontevedra the largest laboratory in Europe for the processing of cocaine base paste, capable of producing 200 kilos of drugs daily for consumption, in an operation in which 18 people who are already in prison have been arrested.
All of them were part of an organization controlled by drug traffickers from Mexico and Colombia and were in charge of transforming the base paste into cocaine hydrochloride ready for consumption from a house in Cerdedo-Cotobade (Pontevedra).
This “very important” operation, in the words of Antonio Duarte, chief commissioner of the Central Narcotics Brigade, has allowed the largest base paste seizure in Europe -1,300 kilos-, the largest amount of cocaine outside its production territories, in addition to abort the placing on the market of large quantities of drugs.
In fact, with this operation, the researchers have verified a new trend in drug trafficking, in which the narcotic substance is exported without having been subjected to the chemical process for its transformation in laboratories located in Europe, which saves costs for drug dealers. drug cartels.
Despite being installed in Pontevedra, the discovered macrolaboratory was not run by any Galician drug-trafficking clan, but by Canarian, Mexican and Colombian citizens, all known to the security forces for drug trafficking.
The 18 detainees have been arrested in Galicia (11), the Basque Country (1), Madrid (4) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (2).