Spain: One of Europe's largest meth labs dismantled with French help

French and Spanish authorities announced Wednesday the dismantling of "one of the largest clandestine methamphetamine recovery laboratories discovered in Europe" in Lérida, Catalonia. Videos of the operation, showing numerous plainclothes officers arresting suspects, were released on social media.

In total, thirteen individuals were arrested: seven Mexican nationals, primarily from Jalisco and Sinaloa, along with four Spaniards and two Colombians. Twelve of them have been detained. Initial investigations by France's Office Against Drug Trafficking (OFAST) and Spanish police suggest the arrested individuals are low-level operatives linked to the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), a Mexican organization active in over 40 countries, including the United States.

Police entered the villa, transformed into a highly sophisticated clandestine laboratory. Inside, they found dozens of containers, pots on burners, and freezer bins filled with various products and solutions. The scene, described as reminiscent of the series "Breaking Bad," yielded 2.4 tons of synthetic drugs.

The French connection to the operation began in June when a container arrived at the port of Le Havre from Mexico. Inside were twelve tons of liquid vanilla flavoring, which customs and OFAST officials deemed suspicious. They suspected the flavoring could contain diluted methamphetamine, a method increasingly used by traffickers to make the drug nearly undetectable by conventional scanners.

This technique requires recovery laboratories to be set up in the destination country. Chemists are then needed to extract, purify, and crystallize the methamphetamine before large-scale distribution across the continent. French intelligence indicated the cargo was destined for Spain, prompting them to initiate surveillance. The container was tracked from Le Havre to Barcelona, then Tarragona, before reaching its final destination in Lérida, approximately 1.5 hours from the Catalan capital.