Agents of the National Police have dismantled the first cocaine production laboratory located in Spain with a structure similar to that used in those installed in South America, with the capacity to produce 120 kilos of drugs per week.

Twelve people have been arrested in this operation, including the leader of the organization and his lieutenant, and ten searches have been carried out in Malaga, Cordoba and Madrid, according to the National Police in a statement.

The so-called ‘Operation Silcon’ began in May when the authorities detected the criminal organization, which had a great operational capacity to carry out its illicit activity. His leader and his lieutenant, who lived in the province of Malaga and had a high standard of living, controlled, through third parties, companies that imported bags of cement in whose shipments they concealed a narcotic substance that fed a clandestine laboratory in Madrid.

The agents managed to identify the leader of the organization, a Spanish citizen, as well as the rest of its members, and verified that these people were supplying themselves with a large quantity of chemical products, as well as all the necessary materials to be able to establish The laboratory. For this purpose, the group had a storage room in Córdoba where it stored solvents that were later transferred to a maritime container located in a car park on the Costa del Sol.

As the investigation progressed, it was possible to identify another Dominican citizen, a trusted person of the leader, who was directly in charge of supervising the drug manufacturing process in the laboratory and organizing its distribution.

In addition, the agents verified that this man personally recruited three Colombian citizens who came to Spain expressly for the extraction of the narcotic substance. These people, known as “cooks”, are normally hired for a specific operation and are paid according to the number of kilos extracted, to later return to their country.

The researchers also verified that the organization had rented a villa in Coín (Málaga), which would initially be where the laboratory was located, which they finally moved to the province of Madrid for security reasons. For the transfer of the narcotic substance, the members of the group put it in sacks with cement and took great security measures, such as the use of shuttle vehicles.

The destination of the bags was, initially, a car wash managed by members of the organization, and later a rural farm, both points located in towns near the capital.

Finally, the agents carried out the operation on September 6, carrying out ten home searches –six in Malaga, three in Madrid and one in Córdoba– and managing to fully dismantle the organization. On this occasion nine people were arrested and three days later another three.

ACCESS TO THE LABORATORY
The Special Operations Group (GEO) participated in the access to the laboratory that was in a town near Madrid, where five “cooks” were found in the process of extracting the drug.

This laboratory was located outside a large farm and under the undergrowth, only protected by umbrellas and tarpaulins that tried to hide its activity from the action of some aerial medium.

The National Police has highlighted its similarity to those installed in the South American jungle and the method used to extract the cocaine base paste, which reflected the great knowledge of the “cooks” in this matter — normally the organizations resort to the use of large quantity of chemical products, but the detainees used only gasoline, ammonia and water for this process.

The National Police arrested the head of the group and his lieutenant in Malaga and, in addition, seized a vehicle in which a pistol with six cartridges ready to use was found, as well as cash and documentation.

Also, a large quantity of chemical products, both liquid and solid, were seized in a container in a car park, waiting to be used for extraction in future operations carried out by this organization.

In total, 85 kilos of cocaine base paste, 250 kilograms of cocaine-impregnated cement, 950 liters of chemical precursors, 125 kilos of solid precursors, six vehicles and 36,000 euros have been seized.

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