Detectives from the Federal Police Service have discovered a large laboratory used for the production of synthetic drugs inside a marl cave at Riemst in Limburg Province. The police and civil defence agency had to crawl through a 7-metre-long shaft in order to reach the subterranean drug lab.
The investigation into the drug laboratory has been underway at the since the spring. On Wednesday, the police raided a flat on Visésteenweg in Riemst. From the flat, a 7-metre-long shaft led through the underground marl grotto to the drug laboratory.
The police assume that mainly amphetamines (speed) were produced at the lab. The police officers, who were accompanied by civil defence staff, came across large quantities of waste from drug production and several boilers in which speed was produced. The criminals were presumably simply hoarding the waste in the marl cave.
The Civil Defence Agency and the Federal Police's Soko Clan Lab Response Unit (CRU) are now clearing out this laboratory. Some of the chemical substances present there could pose a danger to the public. The police arrested two people in connection with the investigation. One of them is the 58-year-old resident of the house that provided access to the cave.