Police officers from the Central Bureau of Police Investigation (CBŚP) have dismantled one of the largest synthetic drug laboratories in Poland, where the psychotropic substance 4CMC (klefedrone) was manufactured. Four people were detained, including a ‘chemist’. The police seized over 2.3 thousand litres of liquid 4CMC, from which drugs worth approximately PLN 30 million could be obtained. Also, they secured 50 tonnes of precursors and chemical reagents necessary for the manufacture of 4CMC.

Police officers from the Katowice branch of the Central Bureau of Anti-Terrorist Operations (CBŚP) dealing with organised drug crime, investigating signals coming from the Będzin district, identified one of the warehouses located in this municipality as a place for illegal production of synthetic drugs. The subsequent procedural activities confirmed that the so-called “police nose” had once again not failed, but the scale of the illegal activity astonished even the most experienced investigators. As it turned out, police officers discovered and liquidated one of the largest synthetic drug production plants in Poland.

Four men between the ages of 26 and 46 were arrested red-handed while manufacturing another batch of drugs. After checking in police databases, it turned out that the oldest of them was also wanted by the Opole Regional Court with an arrest warrant.

CBŚP emphasises that the inspection on spot confirmed that the scale on which psychotropic substances could be produced was huge. Over 2.3 thousand litres of liquid substance were secured, which, on the basis of a preliminary physical and chemical opinion drawn up by the Forensic Laboratory of the Regional Police Headquarters in Katowice, was qualified as a psychotropic substance of 4-CMC (klefedrone). Part of the substance has since crystallised, turning into 300 kg of the completed drug. The total black-market value of the secured drugs is no less than PLN 30 million.

Adrian Andrzejewski