Cocaine lab set up in village home
Suspect was travelling from Gandia to the south of Alicante
POLICE have arrested a suspect for running a cocaine manufacturing operation from a home in the village of Benijófar.
A spokesman for the National Police revealed that a laboratory had been set up in a room of the property.
The case was investigated by detectives from the drugs squad based in Elche.
The spokesman explained that they received information that cocaine could be being produced at a location in the quiet municipality in the Vega Baja which has enjoyed a property boom in recent years.
A team carried out ‘discreet surveillance’ of the home and discovered that no one was living there.
“However, a person visited
during the week, spending several hours inside,” stated the spokesman.
They found that he was travelling all the way from Gandia in Valencia province, where he had his ‘habitual home’.
The detectives were able to establish his identity – a 47year-old Spaniard, who has not been named – and found evidence that there may be a drug laboratory inside the empty property.
An operation was launched and the suspect was arrested at a service station in Santomera in Murcia.
Officers carried out a thorough search of his car and found a ‘sophisticated system’ for hiding items in a secret compartment.
Inside they discovered chemicals from which he allegedly manufactured cocaine in the property in Benijófar.
There were 10 containers which held ethyl acetate, boric acid and other products used to make the synthetic drug.
The officers then raided the home where they found the laboratory which had been set up in a room.
They seized 100 grams of cocaine, €270 in cash and various tools used to manufacture and distribute drugs.
The suspect has been remanded in prison by an Elche judge.