HE ““Macrolaboratory” for the processing of cocaine-based paste dismantled at a chalet in Cerdedo-Cotobade last March Thanks to an operation carried out by the (Pontevedra) National Police, together with Portugal and Colombia, under the direction of the National Court, it had the capacity to produce 200 kilos of it. medicine currentWorking at full capacity 24 hours a day and receiving logistical support from two Spaniards in the Canary Islands.
It is “Europe’s largest laboratory” dedicated to the processing of cocaine-based paste. According to Antonio Martínez Duarte, chief commissioner of the Central Narcotics Brigade, this confirms the “leap” of Colombian and Mexican criminal organizations already working on the ground to produce drugs in countries like Spain. At the Canillas Complex in Madrid.
National Court on 23 March In this operation, 18 detainees were sent to prison, eight “cooks” — six Colombians and two Mexicans — working in semi-slavery conditions at the Cotobade chalet, among which a laboratory was discovered.
A stone crusher and a zulo
There was a stone chipper inside, used to remove base paste from the inside of large rollersand also a hiding place hidden under a hatch, which they keep after taking the medicine out.
Chief Narcotics Commissioner stated The operation was a “milestone” and the organization said it used two Spanish nationals detained in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.Although the bosses are believed to be Colombians and Mexicans based in a South American country , who participated in the logistics required to set up the laboratory . The two Spaniards were in charge of the laundering operations in the Canary Islands, and that was the thread from which the operation began.
The police command also said there was no connection. Galician ‘narcos’ organizations and the intervention, as well as preventing drugs from reaching the market, It prevented environmental crime because the extraction of drugs produced pollutants that spilled into a river near the chalet that hid the lab.
Intervention on the Pontevedra chalet was carried out by members of the Police Special Operations Group (GEO), but eight cooks, six Colombian and two Mexican, offered no resistance. In 14 searches, 1,300 kilos of cocaine-based putty, property worth €1.7m and 37 financial products were seized.