The police have detained eight members of an international criminal group. Among the detainees, who are aged between 24 and 35, there are five Ukrainian citizens, two Polish citizens and one Armenian citizen. Six persons have been remanded in custody as a security measure.
Criminal proceedings took place simultaneously in several Latvian cities, including seven searches.
In general, more than a ton of finished products – the synthetic drug clefedrone, more than 38,000 liters of various chemical liquids, which according to experts are precursors or basic substances for the production of synthetic narcotics – were taken out during the search.
Laboratory equipment and various items related to the production of narcotic substances, five cars – three cars and two trucks, several mobile phones, SIM cards, routers, a laptop and other items that are important in the investigation were also seized.
Expertises are still ongoing to determine the exact weight and composition of the substances removed.
The head of the State Police, Armands Ruks, informed that in the last stage of the chemical process, there were even larger stocks, therefore, it is assumed that after the completion of the expertise, the volume of the finished product taken from the criminals will reach several more tons.
“This is actually the largest drug production laboratory that has been discovered in Latvia,” Ruks announced at the press conference.
The police did not comment on whether the group had any connection with Latvian residents. Ruk stated that the police will not comment on the distribution of the roles of those arrested, including whether the organizer of the crime has been arrested.
The narcotic substances were not intended for the Latvian market, but probably for other European countries, such as Scandinavia, as well as for the market of Russia and Belarus. The “street value” of one gram of such drugs is approximately 20-25 euros. The total value of substances removed from the laboratory, including finished products, is at least 400 million euros.
Ruks confirmed that at the moment, this drug production company has not been found to have a connection with the Latvian organized crime leader Yuri Spiridonov, who was arrested in September, and the members of his group, including those arrested in Spain.
Ruks informed that the said laboratory has not operated in the territory of Latvia for a long time and that was also the mode of operation of the group. In general, the laboratory has been operating for several months.
The withdrawn drug is very dangerous and highly addictive. Pēteris Bauska, head of the State Police’s Department for Combating Serious and Serial Crimes of Organized Crime, added that this is the second seizure of such a substance in the history of Latvia in recent years and it can be called a “happy” drug that people use as a stimulant, for example in discotheques.
Bauska informed that in Russia and other parts of Europe, such laboratories have been found regularly, for example in Poland since 2017. “These workers work for a short time and then change their place,” emphasized Bauska.
In such laboratories, the manufacturing processes are very dangerous because of the use of poisonous volatile substances such as bromine. When asked where the substances needed for the laboratory on the Alūksne side were obtained, Bauska stated that the delivery routes will still be explained, but, for example, in Poland, storing and transporting precursors is not a criminal offense, and precursors are also used in household chemistry. “For example, amphetamine can be produced by entering the Depo store, buying solvents, some chemicals and equipment, basically in kitchen conditions,” Bauska emphasized.
The police leadership also emphasized that nothing ends with the opening of the laboratory, because there is still a lot of international cooperation in strengthening the evidence. In general, several structural units of the State Police were involved in this operation, including the anti-terrorist unit “Omega”, the Special Tasks Battalion, and support was also provided by the European Police Office (Europol).
Ruks informed that drug production sites have been periodically discovered in Latvia in previous years as well. For example, 3-5 marijuana farms of various levels are discovered per year.
It has already been reported that law enforcement officers have found several drug factories in Latvia in recent years, including this year not only a factory was discovered on the side of Alūksne, but before that a similar illegal business was also liquidated in Latgale, according to the information provided by the State Police collected by the LETA agency.
In January of this year, a methamphetamine laboratory was found in a homestead in Latgale, to which chemists from a foreign country were attached and which had managed to produce a product worth around half a million euros.
The source of information in paragraph 1 clarifies information about the type of production, paragraph 9 has been added