What is believed to be the largest cocaine production laboratory ever found in Portugal was recently dismantled, highlighting how the drug is being produced more widely and in greater quantities in Europe with help from Latin American crime groups.
On November 13, Portugal’s Judicial Police dismantled a laboratory where coca paste was transformed into cocaine hydrochloride, or powdered cocaine, in the city of Guimarães, in the Braga district, 54 miles from the country’s northern border.
“During the intervention in the residence where the laboratory operated, which was in full operation, the presence of various materials was verified: hundreds of liters of chemicals, gasoline, acids, and others,” the Portuguese police reported in a press release.
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The laboratory, which was capable of producing more than 100 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride per week, frequently received the arrival of “couriers” or people who transported the coca paste from South America.
During the police operation, authorities arrested two Brazilian and two Colombian nationals who ran the laboratory and seized 50 kilograms of coca paste, large quantities of precursor chemicals, firearms, and money.
In recent years, different types of cocaine production labs, as well as large quantities of precursor chemicals, have been discovered in countries such as Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Still, cocaine production has not yet reached levels comparable to those in Latin America.
In March 2023, authorities in Spain, together with the Portuguese Judicial Police, dismantled one of the largest coca paste processing laboratories in Europe, with an estimated production of 200 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride per day.
InSight Crime Analysis
With Portugal’s role in cocaine trafficking into Europe growing in recent years, the cases of cocaine production and extraction in the country are also likely to increase.
Most of the laboratories found in Europe are located at the points where drugs enter the continent, mainly in Spain and the Netherlands. Until now, a laboratory with this level of sophistication and capacity had not been found in Portugal. But thanks to its geographic location and shared language with Brazil, which exports much of the South American cocaine destined for Europe, Portugal’s relevance in cocaine trafficking has grown, with seizures reaching a record 16.3 tons in 2022.
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Certain import techniques that require different types of laboratories to obtain the final product, such as transporting coca paste or embedding cocaine hydrochloride into carrier materials like textiles or liquids, are becoming more and more common.
The transport of coca paste has several advantages for transnational traffickers. For one, because coca paste costs less than processed cocaine, a seized shipment represents less of a financial loss. In addition, access to higher quality chemicals and equipment in Europe improves the quality of the final product.
Although the future of cocaine production in Europe is still uncertain, the growing demand for the drug on the continent appears to be driving increased cooperation between Latin American and European criminal groups at all stages of cocaine production, trafficking, and distribution.