Cop swoop halts the flood of fake Valium
Drug factory in Kent busted after Operation Venetic police listen in to ‘secure’ phone calls
A HUGE street Valium factory in England that could have flooded Scottish streets with deadly drugs for years has been busted by police.
A staggering 28million pills were found at the site in Rochester, Kent, with the entire supply due to be channelled north of the Border by drug couriers.
Police believe the operation was in its early stages and would have ended up supplying the vast demand for fake Valium “benzo” pills for most of Scotland.
The pills, usually blue in colour, are regarded as a significant factor in making Scotland’s drug death rate far worse than any other developed nation.
Users mix the 50p tablets in polydrug cocktails with heroin, methadone, prescription drugs and alcohol to deadly effect.
Gangsters opted to take the extra risk of long-distance road trafficking because they believed police intelligence would be more likely to home in on such operations in Scotland.
Like other makeshift factories rumbled in Scotland, the latest bust featured an imported press capable of churning out millions of pills a day, using etizolam imported from China.
The drug is a part-copy of Valium, which contains similar benzodiazepine diazepam.
The operation was shut down and six people were arrested as part of Operation Venetic, which turned the encrypted EncroChat phone security systems against the gangland kingpins who paid for its protection.
The National Crime Agency worked closely with Police Scotland as part of the Organised Crime Partnership to target the criminal network that was intent on flooding Scotland with the tablets.
Gerry McLean, the NCA’s head of investigations for Scotland, said: “The operation resulted in the recovery of 28million tablets.
“If police had not intervened, it is likely that many millions more could have been manufactured, all heading to Scotland.
“It may well have been that Kent was chosen because the scale of production and the equipment required would have been more discreet in that location, as it would have taken them away from the scrutiny of law enforcement in Scotland.” Operation Venetic has led to the seizure of £25million of drugs and £7million of dirty cash in Scotland, with 54 arrests after netting 440lb of cocaine, 75lb of heroin as well as eight firearms. In the UK, £54million in cash and two tons of drugs have been seized. “Mr Bigs” who paid thousands for “secure” phones ended up channelling evidence to police across Europe.
Forces pounced after the Dutch supplier of the technology spotted the infiltration.
Superintendent Tim Ross, of Police Scotland’s Safer Communities, urged the public to call Crimestoppers if they have information that could disrupt drug gangs.
He said: “The seizure in Kent shows what we can do with the right information.”