Europe’s largest cocaine lab busted in Spain

MADRID - Spanish police have dismantled what they believe to be the biggest cocaine laboratory discovered in Europe so far and detained 25 people, police said Tuesday.

The laboratory was located on a property in Villanueva de Perales near Madrid. Police confiscated 300 kg of drugs ready for distribution and 33 tonnes of chemical products used for treating cocaine.

Untreated cocaine was smuggled in coffee containers from Latin America and prepared for consumption in Spain.

The ring had a string of flats where police seized two million euros ($2.6 million) in cash, firearms, luxury vehicles and more than 470 mobile phones.

Police also seized property and assets worth 50 million euros.

The ring was believed to have been run by a Spanish couple and two Colombian brothers, police said. The detainees also included employees of a Madrid law firm which apparently helped to launder the suspects’ earnings.

The traffickers had moved from selling cocaine ready for use to preparing it themselves, which increased their earnings, police commissioner Francisco Miguelanez explained.

The new laboratory, which Miguelanez described as unusually large and sophisticated, was discovered by police before it could be put into operation.

Obsessed with security, the ring had turned its country house into a fortress guarded by dogs and motion-detection equipment. The ring leaders had bodyguards armed with large machetes and semi-automatic pistols.

One of the suspected ring leaders, a Spanish woman, consulted Cuban diviners and performed animal sacrifices in attempts to guarantee the success of its operations.

Meanwhile in the northern city of Zaragoza, police dismantled a smaller cocaine ring, detaining 15 people and seizing 1.5 kg of the drug. The suspects were of Colombian, Dominican, Dutch and Spanish origin.