Five arrested in drugs lab bust Nieuwkuijk

The police dismantled a big drugs laboratory in a corporate building in Vimmerik in Nieuwkuijk on Wednesday. They arrested five men.

Three men aged 50, 46 and 36 from Tilburg and one 43-year old man from Zaltbommel worked in the lab, which was producing the raw material for amphetamines, or speed.

The lab was found on the top floor of a business building owned by the man from Zaltbommel. Later in the day, the co-owner of the building, from Poederooijen, was also apprehended.

Police are now busy dismantling the laboratory. During the raid, raw materials were found that would have been able to produce 600 kilograms of amphetamines.

In the lab, the drug manufacturers were using alpha-phenylacetoacetonitrile, or apaan, to produce benzyl methyl ketone, or BMK, which is the raw material used in the production of amphetamines. Apaan is a chemical made in China. By adding hydrochloric acid, apaan turns into BMK, and BMK makes amphetamines.