Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• They mainly produced cannabinoids, cathinones and opiates, all of them synthetic, which they later exported to North America, Oceania and European countries by parcel delivery.

• Three people from the same family who ran the laboratory have been arrested and among the material seized during shipments and in the house search, materials for the production of more than 7,500,000 doses of 'NSP' substances have been seized.

• The investigation, carried out within the framework of the UN GRIDS project, has had the collaboration of the US agencies DEA and CBP.

October 5, 2023.- Customs Surveillance officials of the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with agents of the National Police, have dismantled a laboratory for the manufacture of new psychoactive substances known as 'NSP'. They produced synthetic drugs from natural narcotic substances, which they then exported to North America, Oceania and European countries via parcel delivery.

Three people from the same family who ran the laboratory have been arrested and among the material seized during shipments and in the search, materials for the production of more than 7,500,000 doses of 'NSP' substances such as the stimulant drug 'monkey powder', the synthetic cannabinoid ADB-BUTINACA and the synthetic cantinone a-PiHP have been seized. This is a research project that has been carried out within the framework of the United Nations GRIDS project and in which the US agencies DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) have collaborated.

The investigation began in early March after learning that shipments of dangerous narcotic substances known as 'NSP' were being carried out from somewhere in the province of Barcelona, both to the United States and to various European countries.

Following various investigations, it was possible to identify a member of the organization who was making shipments from different parcel offices in Barcelona, so a surveillance service was set up on his movements and shipments, with several of them being intercepted, both in Spain and in the United States, where the collaboration of the CBP and the DEA was counted on.

Ability to modify the effects of the drug on the user

This revealed that the organization was sending dangerous psychoactive substances belonging to families as diverse as synthetic cathinones, synthetic opiates and synthetic cannabinoids. Among the latter, the following have been able to be intervened: ADB-BUTINACA, ADB-FUBIACA, ADB-B-5BR-INACA, A-FUBIACA and JWC-210. These preparations are chemical substances with psychoactive effects that belong to the group of synthetic cannabinoids, which are produced by chemical synthesis and whose effects are intended to imitate or resemble those produced by cannabis. The chemical synthesis of these substances makes it possible to increase the potency of the effects produced by their consumption and also to expand or modify the type of effects on the consumer.

Once the organization's movements and the shipments they made began to be monitored, it was possible to verify that those shipments, despite having a very low weight, were of great economic value due to the difficulty of their preparation. They were being sent through a company that presented itself under several corporate names and whose registered office was in Barcelona. This company, in turn, had associated accounts with a Hungarian company.

Continuing with the investigation of the objectives, after analyzing all the places frequented by the members of the organization, it was possible to discover the place where they resided and where they had established the clandestine laboratory for the manufacture of the 'NSP'. The laboratory was located in a house in the Barcelona town of Tagament, which provided a discreet and remote location in which to establish the clandestine laboratory.

During the investigation it was determined that two Hungarian nationals living in Barcelona were behind the shipment of these substances.

At the end of July, after monitoring his usual movements, investigators managed to intercept the main suspect as he was heading to a parcel office to send a shipment of boxes. This intervention prevented the shipment of four large packages containing a significant quantity of 'NSP' destined for Greece, the USA, Ireland and Italy.

Following the arrest, a search was carried out at a home where another member of the criminal organisation, of Hungarian nationality and son of the principal, and a woman of Colombian nationality were present. This brought the number of people arrested for the events under investigation to three.

Inside the house it was discovered that the organization had installed a sophisticated production and logistics dispatch system. Thus, in one room he had the clandestine laboratory set up, with different chemical products, solvents and precursors necessary to make the substances. They also had a blistering machine for the pills.

In another room they had a warehouse where they placed the already prepared drugs, bagged in their marketing and dosage packages. There they had all the necessary supplies, bags, packages and screen printing for final marketing. They arranged the substances on different shelves where they were classified as if it were a supermarket counter.

Virtual currencies and gold bars in the registry

In addition to tools for the preparation of NSP, machinery and a multitude of tools for the synthesis of drugs, laboratory material and precursors were seized during the same search. In addition, 35,000 euros in cash, 1.8086 virtual currencies worth 52,635 euros, various gold bars and computer equipment pending analysis were seized.

During the investigation, international cooperation with foreign police agencies (CBP, DEA, INCB), under the coordination of CITCO, has made it possible to hit the organization in different countries, seizing a large quantity of these dangerous psychoactive substances during the two years of laborious police investigation.

Mass shipments through parcel companies

This coordination made it possible to understand the modus operandi and the details of the volume of shipments carried out by this organisation. The method they used consisted of flooding the parcel systems of large logistics companies with low-value and low-weight shipments, which made it difficult to identify and police control them.

Thus, in the period between January 2020 and April 2020 alone, taking into account a single logistics company used to send packages abroad, 704 shipments containing narcotic substances destined for Asia, the United States and Europe were seized.

Despite using different international parcel logistics companies, they often made repetitive or repeated deliveries to the same postal addresses to hinder police action.  Thus, between April and June 2022, a total of 136 shipments containing different substances such as ALPHA-PIHP, TH-PVP, BK-2C-B, and 4-FLUOROMETHYLPHENIDATE(4F-MPH) were seized in the United States, with a total weight of 67.4 kilos of dangerous new psychoactive substances.

Likewise, under the coordination of the UN INCB, it has been possible to manage the intervention of numerous packages with diverse destinations, since the organization sent them not only to Europe (France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Poland, among others) but also to Australia and New Zealand, where their price is substantially higher, increasing their value by 200%.

Among the shipments intercepted before entering the third country market, one stands out, containing 163 grams of MDPHP, known as 'monkey powder' or 'cannibal drug', with powerful stimulant effects, being ten times more potent than cocaine as a psychostimulant, with this seizure representing more than 160,000 doses for consumption.

Another substance worth mentioning was α-PiHP, of which around 20 grams were seized and used to make around 7,000 doses of synthetic cathinone with psychostimulant effects more potent than those of methamphetamine. On the other hand, among the seizures carried out from the criminal organization, synthetic cannabinoids such as ADB-BUTINACA among others should be highlighted, with 65 grams being seized with which 65,000 doses could be made for sale.

During the search of the laboratory, the agents were surprised by the large quantity of narcotic substances ('NSP') that were found both in the manufacturing phase and already prepared as a final product.

These types of substances vary in their form of administration (oral, smoked, snorted) and the amount of consumption dose. The police operation led to the seizure of more than 7,500,000 doses of these synthetic preparations, which had ended up in the various illicit markets for which they were destined. Given the quantity of substances seized, they are still being analysed to this day.