Spanish police arrested 12 people after they raided a drug lab near Madrid that looked like the clandestine outdoor labs found in the jungles of South America and had the capacity to produce 120 kg of the drug each week.
The lab, the first of its kind discovered in Spain, was stormed by officers from the Polic a Nacional's special operation group who found five cooks at work when they burst in.
The operation, which included searches of 10 properties in Madrid, M laga and C rdoba, resulted in the seizure of 85 kg of cocaine base paste, 250 kg of cocaine-impregnated cement, six vehicles, a pistol and €36,000 32,000 in a statement.
This operation used to recover the cocaine that laboratory-dismantling experts had never seen in this country, and resembles what you see in the South American jungle, it said.
These laboratories are usually set up in houses or industrial units to escape the attention of neighbours and the police. The laboratory was in the grounds of a huge farm and was only protected by shades and tarpaulins that had been put up to hide its activities from the aerial view. According to the statement, the Spanish citizen who was said to be the leader of the gang oversaw a business importing sacks of cement whose contents were laced with the cocaine that was extracted from a farm near Madrid using a carefully hoarded supply of chemicals.
The leader tasked a Dominican citizen with running the lab and coordinating the distribution of the cocaine. He recruited three Colombians who came to Spain to recover the cocaine from the cement.
Cooks, known as cooks, are usually hired for a specific operation and charge according to the number of kilos extracted before returning to their home country, according to the statement.
The operation reflected the deep knowledge of the cooks Rather than using large quantities of chemicals that are subject to international stringent international checks, they employed only petrol, ammonia and water to recover the cocaine. A drone was used to guard the lab.