John Culatto
ELITE police busted a cocaine lab in Spain that could prepare 120 kilos of the illegal drug every week.
The Special Operations Group (GEO) led the raid on Saturday in the Madrid neighbourhood of Navalagamella, arresting 12 people.
Policia Nacional units also carried out three more raids in Madrid, six in Malaga and one in Cordoba.
Authorities started the investigation into the criminal group in May.
They discovered that its Spanish leader lived a life of luxury in Malaga importing bags of cement with the ingredients of cocaine hidden inside.
When the elite police unit broke into the cocaine lab they found five people ‘cooking’ the cocaine using only petrol, ammonium and water.
Earlier, authorities had discovered a shed in Cordoba where the criminal group kept the ingredients to cook the cocaine.
Every few months they would move the substances to a car parking in the Costa del Sol and from there to Madrid.
The man in charge of the operation was a Dominican who recruited three Colombians to cook the drug.
Although the drug traffickers had originally planned to set up the lab in a Coin villa, they finally moved its location to Madrid for security reasons.
In the September 6 raids, police found €36,000 and 85 kilos of cocaine base as well as chemicals the gang used to make the drug.
They then concluded the investigation when they arrested the gang’s leader in Malaga.
Authorities noted the cocaine lab had a similar structure to those found in South America, the first of its kind discovered in Spain.
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