Twelve arrested as police raid Spain's first South American style cocaine laboratory

The police ascertained that the organisation was storing a large quantity of chemical products in Cordoba and then transferring them as needed to a maritime container situated in a Costa del Sol car park ready for transporting.

The officers also identified a Dominican national who worked closely with the leader of the gang, supervised the production of the drug in the laboratory and arranged how it was distributed. He had personally recruited three Colombians who came to Spain specifically to extract the cocaine; these people are known as ‘cooks’ and are contracted for a specific operation.

The investigators learned that the gang had originally rented a house in Coín and intended to turn that into the laboratory, but then decided on an alternative location in the Madrid region instead.

When officers from the Special Operations Group entered the laboratory, they found five ‘cooks’ at work. Apart from the 12 arrests, they seized a supply of products needed to produce the cocaine, six vehicles and 36,000 euros in cash.