Synthetic drug ring busted in “largest-ever operation” of its kind in Europe

CBS

European police said Wednesday they busted a major synthetic drug ring working across several countries in the “largest-ever operation” of its kind, striking a “massive blow” to organized crime.

Authorities dismantled 24 industrial-scale labs and seized around 1,000 tons of chemicals used to make street drugs such as MDMA, amphetamine and meth.

“I’ve been in this business for a while. This is by far the largest-ever operation we did against synthetic drug production and distribution,” Andy Kraag, head of Europol’s European Serious Organised Crime Centre, told AFP in an interview.

“I think this is genuinely a massive blow to organized crime groups involved in drug trafficking, specifically of synthetic drugs,” added Kraag.

The profits generated were “considerable,” Polish police said at a press conference in Warsaw. For every euro spent on drug production, traffickers made approximately 30 euros in profit.

The year-long operation involved police from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, Europol said.

The agency released video of the operations, showing officers conducting raids, making arrests and seizing evidence. Europol said police conducted 50 house searches -— 45 in Poland, two in Belgium, two in Germany and one in the Netherlands.

More than 85 arrests were made, including the two suspected ringleaders, both from Poland, Kraag said. Europol called the alleged ringleaders “high-value targets.”

Suspicions were raised back in 2024 when Polish police noticed a network importing vast quantities of legal chemicals from China and India.

“These precursors were legal, generally used in the pharmaceutical industry,” but the quantities acquired and processed were “very large, unrelated to the actual needs of the companies” acting as fronts for the trafficking, the Polish police stressed.

Investigations later showed these chemicals were being repackaged, mislabeled and redistributed across the European Union to labs that manufactured the synthetic drugs.

Polish police released footage of the operation showing dozens of drums and tanks containing the precursors stored in various warehouses, as well as processing labs raided by heavily armed investigators.

The majority of those arrested were from Poland, but Belgian and Dutch nationals are also thought to have been involved in the criminal operations.

“The operational structure of this criminal network was complex, with seven legal companies in Poland facilitating the import and distribution activities, and high-level leadership coordination connecting the different criminal groups across EU countries,” Europol said.

“Supply-chain strategy”
Kraag said the operation was part of a “supply-chain strategy” to choke off the synthetic drug industry at its source.

“These criminal groups, they don’t have their supply anymore,” he told AFP.

To prevent future trafficking on a similar scale, Chief Commander of the Polish Police Marek Boron told AFP that law enforcement was “constantly updating the list of precursors entering the market.”

“We are constantly at the stage of determining which chemicals are currently being misused for drug production,” he added.

Aside from the health risks associated with using these drugs, Kraag pointed to the related problems of violence, corruption and money-laundering in this criminal field.

Synthetic drug production also carries a damaging environmental impact, he noted.

Authorities seized more than 120,000 liters, or 31,700 gallons, of toxic chemical waste that the criminals usually dump on land or in streams.

“Today, it’s profit for criminals. Tomorrow, it’s pollution,” said Kraag.

Police have other targets in their sights following the successful operation announced on Wednesday by Europol, the EU police agency.

“This is one of the biggest distributors. But it’s not the only one. So we’re still looking,” Kraag said.

Last month, Europol announced it had helped coordinate three major operations to disrupt “major cocaine supply chains into Europe.”