Dutch drug labs increasingly professional

Drug laboratories in the Netherlands are getting so efficient and professional, that "in the foreseeable future the Dutch underworld will no longer need Mexicans to make large-scale crystal meth of the highest quality," Carlos Bertens of the National Police said to NRC.

Earlier this year, the National Police said that there are increasing indications that Mexican cartels are working with Dutch drug traffickers to teach them how to produce crystal meth in their ecstasy labs. There have also been a number of cases of Mexican suspects being arrested in meth lab busts in the Netherlands. Last year such labs were busted on a boat in Moerdijk and in a warehouse in Wateringen, and this year one was found near the Gelderland village of Herwijnen.

The police are currently focusing their attentions on the boilers used to produce synthetic drugs, as these are getting bigger and more professional. A decade ago, busted drug labs contained boilers averaging at 100 to 200 liters.

Now boilers between 1 thousand and 2 thousand liters have become increasingly common, peaking at 3 thousand liters, according to the newspaper.

Last month the police raided 17 properties in an investigation into a boiler maker from Tilburg, whose products were found in various drug labs. Building on that, the police will visit about 25 manufacturers of industrial boilers in the coming weeks, to warn them about customers who use their products to make synthetic drugs.