Brussels: Police in Belgium and the Netherlands on Tuesday arrested dozens of people linked to a network mass producing synthetic drugs such as ecstasy for use throughout Europe, Belgian police said.
The neighbouring EU countries are "among the biggest producers of synthetic drugs in the world" and, given the quantities seized, the drug factories run by these groups would have fed markets throughout the continent, a police statement said.
The joint police operations on Tuesday led to the arrests of the "main players" and dozens of other people, including five in Belgium.
The Belgian police operations were concentrated on an operation in the southeastern city of Liege which bought 300 tonnes of chemical products last year.
An amphetamines laboratory and a cannabis plantation were uncovered.
In the Netherlands 16 synthetic drug factories and drug dumps were dismantled, according to the Belgian police report.
"These included secret laboratories, still in operation, some with a daily capacity of a million ecstasy tablets," the police said.
Half a tonne of finished product was also seized in the Netherlands, including enough material to make four millions pills of the psychoactive recreational drug known as ecstasy.
Some of the drug factories were situated in Dutch residential areas. Their dismantlement "has avoided the danger of an imminent explosion" on the illegal drugs market, the police statement said.
EU citizens spend more than 24 billion euros ($27.3 billion) every year on illegal drugs such as cannabis and heroin, a European watchdog said last month, warning of links between the trade and terrorism.
The report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction body said cannabis, which accounts for the biggest illegal retail market, was mainly grown in the European Union, while heroin, the second biggest market, was now being produced in some EU member states.
The highly profitable drugs market and its associated criminal economy is linked to migrant smuggling and acts of terror.
The report said many people involved in jihadist attacks, "often recently radicalised young people, may have a history of low-level criminality, including drug use or involvement in the drug market, and exploit their criminal links to conduct their terrorist activities in a range of ways".
Citing the most recent available figures, the report said cannabis led in 2013 with 38 percent of the European market, followed by heroin at 28 percent, cocaine at 24 percent, amphetamines at 8.0 percent and ecstasy at 3.0 percent.
AFP
