The illegal laboratory was discovered in a village some 50 miles from Barcelona, Spain (Picture: Solarpix)
A secret laboratory where a ‘zombie drug’ also known as ‘monkey dust’ was being produced has been busted in Spain.
Boxes containing a ‘large amount’ of so-called ‘new narcotics’ that were heading to the UK and other European nations were seized by police in Barcelona as part of a long-running operation.
Officers intercepted the main suspect, from Hungary, as he headed to a courier to make the drop.
He was held before police arrested his son and a Colombian woman, and found their ‘sophisticated production and dispatch system’ the trio allegedly ran from their home.
Thousands of pounds in euros and gold bars were also seized at the property (Picture: Solarpix)
Thousands of pounds in euros and gold bars were seized at the property along with chemical products that would have served to produce more than 7.5 million doses of synthetic drugs.
A spokesperson for Spain’s National Police said in a statement: ‘National Police officers, in a joint operation with Spanish customs officials, have dismantled a laboratory producing new psychoactive substances known as NSP.
‘They produced synthetic drugs from natural narcotic substances they then sent to European countries, North America and Oceania through courier firms.
‘The European countries the organisation sent to included the UK, Ireland, France and Germany.
What is ‘monkey dust’ ?
Monkey dust is usually snorted, but can also be found as capsules and pills.
It can be smoked or, in rare cases, injected. It is also known as ‘bath salts’ or MDPV.
Police have described tackling people under the influence of the drug as like trying to wrestle with the Incredible Hulk.
Addicts believe they are being chased, and are said to have tried to climb buildings and lampposts to escape beasts from their vivid hallucinations.
The Class B drug, first synthesised at a German pharmaceutical company in the 1960s.
‘Three people belonging to the same family who ran the laboratory have been arrested.
‘The material seized would have served to produce more than seven and a half million doses of NSP substances like the stimulant known as monkey dust, the synthetic cannabinoid ADB-BUTINACA and the synthetic caninone a-PiHP.’
The long-running probe began in March after police discovered ‘dangerous’ NSP substances were being sent abroad from Barcelona.
The courier offices thought to have been used were put under surveillance and several consignments of drugs were intercepted.
Detectives discovered a firm based in the city using bank accounts linked to a Hungarian company was behind the deliveries.
They then found out the location of the clandestine lab – in a house in a village called Tagamanent, a 50-miles drive north of Barcelona.
Detailing the arrest of the main suspect, a police spokesperson said: ‘When he was heading to a courier firm’s offices to send boxes abroad he was intercepted by investigators.
‘That frustrated the delivery of four large parcels containing an important amount of NSP to Ireland, Greece, the States and Italy.
‘The other two arrests took place during a subsequent raid on the residential property the lab was operating from.’
Detectives said the drugs ready to be sent abroad were packed up in different shelves in the property ‘as if they were in a supermarket.’
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