The discovery of Europe's largest cocaine factory marks a new trend

2023-05-15 23:43:35, Kronika CNA

MADRID — Packages of cocaine had the Superman logo on them, but that was no accident.

In an attempt to make the contraband look like it was gift-wrapped before being shipped from Colombia, the gang wanted to hide the fact that the cocaine was manufactured much closer.

It was produced in a hidden factory in an isolated villa in Galicia, northwest Spain.

A gang of eight worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in near total isolation to produce 150 kilograms of the drug. But police officers who busted the gang said the sophisticated production line could have churned out 200 kilograms of cocaine a day, with a market value of $5.4 million.

Spanish police and crime analysts said it was the biggest cocaine factory discovered on the European continent to date, marking a new tactic among the cartels.

Instead of manufacturing the drug in the jungles of Colombia or Peru, sneaking through police checkpoints and shipping the cocaine across the Atlantic, the cartels are setting up factories in Europe to save money and reduce risks.

"This is part of a new trend that we need to be aware of," the head of the Spanish police's Central Narcotics Brigade told VOA on condition of anonymity.

"The factory we discovered in the city of Pontevedra in the Galicia region was the largest discovered so far in Europe," he said. "We estimate that this gang may have produced around 200 kilograms of cocaine every day. Other police forces have said that there are laboratories in other places."

The gang hid 1.3 tons of cocaine in the form of a paste, which is then transformed into a powder form that is sold on the street, with machines sent from South America.

Police said it was the largest amount of the compound ever discovered in Europe at a drug factory based on the continent.

Well hidden

"It took us 14 hours to get the blocks of cocaine out of these cars. That gives you an idea of ??how well it was hidden," said the drug squad officer.

The Superman logo was affixed to packages of cocaine to give the impression that it was packed in Colombia in case buyers doubted its quality.

The discovery of Europe's largest cocaine factory marks a new trend

Police arrested 18 suspects in the city of Pontevedra in the Galicia region in March, but the raid was only recently made public. All suspects have been remanded in custody pending trial at a later date.

Eight Colombians worked all week at the factory after the gang took their passports and phones so they could not give police the location of the drug operation. Each member of the gang was given a nickname to hide their true identity.

Different strategies

Laurent Laniel, chief scientific analyst at the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, a European Union organization based in Lisbon, said the Spanish plant is the latest in a series of drug operations on the European continent.

"I think this is a different strategy. It may not replace the traditional trafficking of finished cocaine in Europe. But there is definitely a trend to produce large quantities of cocaine in Europe. This is not just an isolated incident," he told VOA.

He said Dutch police raided ten laboratories between 2018 and 2021. Each produced over 100 kilograms of cocaine a day. There have also been raids on smaller factories in Belgium and Spain.

"It appears that much of the cocaine paste is smuggled in materials such as plastic, wood, coal, cement and asphalt which means it is impossible for the police to trace," Mr Laniel said.

"It's probably cheaper and less dangerous to have massive labs in Europe than to smuggle drugs from Colombia."

Laniel said authorities must make it harder for criminals to access the chemicals that are essential to the production of cocaine.

In 2021, the United Nations estimated that around 2,000 tonnes of pure cocaine – worth around $5.4 billion – is produced worldwide each year. However, this estimate is impossible to verify.

Mr Laniel said the cocaine trade is "on the rise" as the factory production process is more sophisticated than ten years ago which means profits for drug gangs are higher.